25 Days of Skyeward
by jellybean96
Summary: A collection of 25 Christmas related one-shots for the wonderful, amazing pairing of Skyeward, because I love Christmas and I'm still salty about these two not being together because they could have been really great. So happy holidays, hope you enjoy.
1. Evolution of the Christmas Spirit

**Hey babes! Happy 1st of December! In honor of the Christmas season, and because I will always, always love Skyeward, I've decided to post a collection of 25 one-shots (a couple of them interconnecting), collectively known as 25 Days of Skyeward. :)**

 **Here is the first of those one-shots, called _Evolution of the Christmas Spirit._**

 **I wanted to post this earlier, but I had a few other obligations. So I'm posting this now.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Skye? What the hell are you wearing?"

"It's an ugly Christmas sweater, genius," Skye replies, glancing down at the slightly oversized sweater hanging on her body. "Really, Grant, I thought you were smart enough to figure that out."

"Oh, no, I figured it out," Grant tells her. "The part I'm still trying to figure out is why you're wearing a Christmas sweater when Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet."

"Because I love Christmas," she tells him with a smile. "We've been best friends since the seventh grade when you pummeled those eight graders for making fun of me and then I hit you and said I didn't need anyone to fight my battles for me."

"Trust me, I remember," Grant says.

Skye nods. "Right. And in all those years—"

"It was only a few years ago."

Skye narrows her eyes at him. " _And in all those years_ , I really thought you would have realized how much I really love Christmas."

"No, I know how much you love Christmas. Part of me just really can't believe that you're actually wearing that in the middle of November."

"Well believe it, buddy," Skye tells him. "Because you can expect to see a lot of this Christmas spirit in these high school hallways over the next two months."

"Oh, I know. Just please try not to blind or annoy anyone by your over excitement for Christmas. Some people actually like to celebrate holidays in order and not skip any of them."

"Well those people are crazy," Skye says. "Christmas is the best holiday ever and should be celebrated at every opportunity."

"I know you think that. Just please try and keep it down around other people at school."

Skye smiles when the school bell rings and she turns to make her way down the hallway. "I make no promises whatsoever."

Grant just smiles and shakes his head at his best friends' antics, turning to go in the other direction toward his own class.

* * *

"Why does your door look like that?" Grant asks as he and Skye approach her dorm room.

Skye stops to the side of the door and smiles at it before looking over at Grant. "It's a Christmas tree," she tells him.

He nods. "Yeah, I can see that."

"A giant Christmas tree complete with ornaments on the branches and presents underneath."

"But why is it there?" he asks her. "We haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet but you already have a Christmas tree decorating your door. Halloween was just a few days ago."

Skye nods. "Mm-hmm. Great deductive skills there, Sherlock." She turns to her door and inserts her key into the lock.

"And don't think I haven't noticed your Christmas sweater," he says, stepping into the room after her.

Skye lets out a small laugh as she tosses her backpack onto her bed and her keys onto her desk. "Like I was actually trying to hide it. Sometimes I honestly think that you forget how much I love Christmas."

Grant shrugs off his backpack and drops it onto the floor as he sits down on Skye's bed, leaning back against the wall. "No, I haven't forgotten," he assures her. "Believe me, being friends with you for so long, I haven't forgotten how much you love Christmas."

Skye flops down next to him and holds a bag of Swedish fish out to him, allowing him to take a few. "You just always seem so shocked and surprised every year when I bust out the Christmas stuff as soon as November rolls around." She takes a candy fish out of the bag and bites off its head before tossing the rest into her mouth.

"I'm not necessarily surprised," he tells her. "Just wondering when you're going to actually wait until _December_ to start obsessing over Christmas."

Skye grins as she leans a bit closer to him. "The answer is never, my friend, never."

* * *

"So, I was thinking for tomorrow we could just—what the hell is that?" Grant gapes at the large green object standing in the corner of the living room of the apartment, still barren of any foreign objects on its branches.

Skye turns and grins at him. "It's a Christmas tree."

Grant nods slowly. "Yeah I can see that. But why is it in the apartment?"

Skye raises an eyebrow at him as he approaches. "Are you really asking me that question right now?"

Grant sighs. "Right, of course. How could I have forgotten about your ridiculous obsession with celebrating Christmas before it's actually time for Christmas."

"I honestly don't know how you could have forgotten," she tells him, turning back to the tree and grabbing a few ornaments to start hanging on the branches. "It's not like I ever try and hide my enthusiasm."

"Do Fitz and Jemma know about this?" he asks her.

"Of course they do," Skye replies. "Did you really think I wouldn't ask our roommates if this was okay with them before I did it?"

"You didn't ask me," Grant says, pointing to himself.

Skye waves him off. "I don't need to ask you. I know you'll be okay with it."

Grant just sighs and shakes his head, relenting and joining Skye in decorating the tree, Christmas music soon filling the space around them.

* * *

"It's our first Christmas together," Skye says with a smile to the man sitting next to her.

"No it isn't, Skye," Grant tells her. "Or are you just forgetting about all of the Christmases we've spent together since we became friends and while were dating?"

Skye rolls her eyes and pokes him in the side. "I meant our first Christmas together as a married couple, you dork."

He nods. "Ah. But I think you're forgetting about something that's very important."

"What would that be?" she asks.

"It's still November," he reminds her.

Skye sighs. "You're still on about that after all these years of knowing me? I would have thought you'd given up by now, babe."

He shakes his head. "Nope. I haven't given up on it."

"Oh, well you should really consider doing so. Now that we're married I have complete control over your sex life."

"You had complete control over that even when we were just dating," he tells her.

Skye smiles and nods once. "True. But there's something about being married that makes the whole idea even better."

Grant chuckles quietly. "Right. Well, I have something for you."

Skye shifts on the couch and turns fully to face him. "Ooh, what is it?" She points a finger at him and narrows her eyes. "And just because I start celebrating Christmas in November you better not be giving me my Christmas present right now. Because you aren't going to get away with that again."

Grant laughs. "No, it's not your Christmas present."

"Then what is it?" she asks.

"This." He reaches behind the arm of the couch and pulls something out, holding it up between him and Skye.

She furrows her brows as she looks down at the item. "A Santa hat?"

He nods, looking at the brand new red and white hat. "Mm-hmm."

"Is it for me?" she asks him. "Because you know that I already have a ton of Santa hats."

Grant shakes his head. "No, it's not for you."

"Then what's it for?" she asks.

He just smiles as he sets the hat on top of his head. Then he shifts on the couch and reaches into his pocket, pulling out his cell phone and swiping across the screen to get to the camera. "Go grab one of your hats," he tells her.

Skye grins and stands up from the couch, moving down the hallway to the closet where she keeps all of the Christmas decorations and her Santa hats.

After a minute of digging through it, she grabs one of her favorite hats and then goes back over to where Grant is sitting. She falls down next to him and pulls the Santa hat securely onto her head.

"Now what?" she asks.

"Now this," he says, leaning closer to her and holding the phone up in front of them. "Smile."

Skye lets a toothy grin grow on her lips right before Grant snaps the photo.

Grant pulls the phone down and smiles at the photo. He locks his phone and looks at Skye. "That will definitely be going on Facebook later, might even make it my profile picture for a little while."

Skye lets out a small laugh as she shakes her head. "What has gotten into you all of a sudden?"

Grant shrugs. "I just figured that by this point in our relationship I should stop trying to get you to wait until after Thanksgiving to start celebrating Christmas. And I might as well join in, too."

"You're the sweetest," she says to him.

He smiles. "I know. Now, should we go and pick out a Christmas tree even though it'll probably be dead before Christmas and we'll have to get another one?"

Skye grins. "Absolutely."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	2. Christmas Party Confession

**Hey babes! Back again with a new for ya for 25 Days of Skyeward! This one was pretty fun to write, one of the prompts I found being,** " _We're coworkers who hate each other but you had too much to drink at the staff Christmas party and admitted your love for me I don't know how to act around you now" **.**_

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Oh my gosh, why the hell is he here?" Skye groans quietly in annoyance, turning around so her back is facing the open area of the office building and ducking her head down to her drink cup.

"Maybe it's because he works here, just like everyone at this party does," her best friend tells her. "It's a staff Christmas party, Skye, of course he's going to be here."

"Yeah, well, I thought he'd take a holiday and go back to wherever he came from."

"Massachusetts?"

Skye sighs and rolls her eyes. "You know that's not what I meant, Jemma."

"Well how do I know it isn't what you meant?"

"You've known me for years. And you know how much I despise that man and wish he'd just quit so I didn't have to look at his face ever again."

"Is he really that bad, though?" Jemma asks. "I haven't spent a whole lot of time with him since I started working here."

Skye scoffs. "Oh, he's really that bad. He's so aggravating and grates on my nerves so much."

"The feeling's mutual."

Turning around, Skye's eyes narrows at the sight of the tall dark haired man in front of her. "What the hell do you want?"

"I just thought I'd come over and say hey," he tells her with a small smirk.

"And what aspect of this 'relationship' made you think that's a good idea?" she questions, quirking an eyebrow. "Because last I checked, I can't stand you."

"And I can't stand you either. Glad we're on the same page there."

"Is there a reason you're here? Or was it just to make me irritated?"

"I already told you, I came over to say hi. You getting irritated is just an added bonus."

Skye rolls her eyes. "So are you going to leave now since you've achieved your goal, or are you going to continue to annoy me by standing there and talking?"

Grant just takes a small sip from his drink as he slowly turns around and saunters away from Skye, leaving the brunette more irritated than she was when she arrived.

.

.

.

"There she is! The most beautiful woman in the entire office!"

Spinning around quickly, Skye's eyes go wide when she sees Grant approaching her, a slight wobble to his steps as he walks.

"What the hell do you want now?" she asks him.

Grant's brows furrow. "You're kind of mean, you know that?" he asks with a slight slur to his words. "But only to me. Why are you only mean to me? I don't…I don't get it."

"You're rude to me too," she tells him.

"Because I don't know how to act around you!" he shouts, drawing attention of some the people around them. "I tried to be nice but you made it difficult, so I just gave up," he slurs. "I'm at such a-a loss here; I don't know what to do. I just want to kiss you right now. So badly. But you'll probably p-punch me if I did."

"You're right, I will," she says.

"And that…that is why I love you," he says, making her entire body freeze up. "You're so confident and you don't let people push-push you around. Which is probably why you're so good at what you do here. And your eyes," he says with a goofy smile. "Your eyes are my favorite thing about you. They're so beautiful, just like all the rest of you. You're just…you're so amazing."

Before Skye can open her mouth to respond a tall, bald man runs up to them. "Grant! You bloody idiot!" He breathes heavily when he reaches them, looking at Skye. "I am so sorry about him. I'll just take him far away from you."

"Kebo, no," Grant says in protest with a frown, trying to pull out of Kebo's grasp. His inebriated state makes it difficult to break free.

"Grant, yes," Kebo replies. "You're drunk, mate, you need to sleep it off."

"But Skye…"

"She'll still be working here tomorrow," Kebo says as he leads Grant away. "Probably. Unless you scared her off with that whole speech. I turn away for one second..."

Skye just watches as Grant is lead away from her, not quite able to find her voice after what just happened in front of the entire office.

* * *

"Skye."

Letting out a deep sigh, she slowly turns around and pulls a tight smile on her face when she sees Grant approaching. "Hi," she says.

"Hi. Did you finish that report up for the Michaels account?"

"I'm uh, I'm working on it," she tells him, looking anywhere but at his eyes. "Should be finished by this afternoon."

"Great, thanks."

She gives a small nod. "Yeah, no problem."

"Hey, what's your deal?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"I think you do," he says. "You're acting weird. Weirder than usual. You're not throwing insults at me every other sentence, you're not making eye contact, so what's your issue right now?"

"You are."

"Well there's a surprise."

"I'm serious here, Ward. I don't know if you remember, you were pretty hammered, but at the Christmas party you kind of…confessed something to me that took me, and a lot of people here, by surprise."

Grant's brows furrow. "Really? What exactly did I say? It couldn't have been that embarrassing."

"Actually, it kind of was. I'm honestly surprised no one else has said anything about it to you yet."

"So are you going to tell me what I did, then? Or just let me wrack my brain hoping I didn't come off as a total idiot?"

"Oh, you always come off as a total idiot," she remarks.

He simply sighs.

Skye relents. "Fine. I'll tell you." She shifts on her feet. "You uh, you were pretty drunk, like I said, and you may have come up to me during the party and confessed your undying love for me."

Grant's eyes nearly bug out of his head. "I did what?"

"I know. I could hardly believe it either. You started talking about my eyes, how much you loved them, and a bunch of other stuff that I'd care not to relive because it was kind of weird. I honestly don't know what to do with all the information you dropped on me that night. Hence why I've been avoiding you more than usual."

"I think I have an idea," Grant says.

"This should be good," Skye mutters. She stands up a little taller and plasters on a fake smile. "What is your idea?"

"Go out with me."

Skye's smile falls and her eyes go wide. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Go out with me," he repeats, taking a small step forward. "I know you probably don't want to, if the way you treat me is any indication, but what I said that night, whatever I said that night, it was the truth. Or some variation of the truth. I don't know about 'love' right now, since I don't really know you all too well, but I do like you, Skye. And I'd like to get to know you better, away from work and everything else. So what do you say?"

Skye purses her lips and tilts her head. "Fine. I'll go out with you. One date, Grant Ward, and I'm only doing this to prove a point."

"And what point would that be?" he asks with a small smile.

"That I can't stand you."

.

.

.

After the New Year they're caught making out in the break room at work by Jemma when they thought no one else was around. The Brit can't keep the grin off her face for the rest of the day, despite catching her friend in a very compromising situation.

They become the ultimate power couple at work from then on, the teasing still very much there between them, but laced with a lot more affection than before.

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	3. The Next Generation

**Hey babes! Back again for day 3 of this wonderful Skyeward Christmas holiday. This particular one is actually the sequel of sorts to another story that I wrote two years ago, entitled** _New Beginning._ **It's not completely necessary to read that one first, but it will give you a little background knowledge before diving into this one.**

 **I've actually had this one written for a while, I was just waiting for the right opportunity to share it. And now I have. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Making his way through the downstairs hallway of their two-story home and out toward the living room, Grant stops in the doorway and leans in, looking over to where his wife is sitting on the couch nursing their two month old son. "Hey Skye, have you seen Jess anywhere?"

Skye looks up and over her shoulder. "Isn't she in the bathroom?" she asks her husband.

Grant shakes his head, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Um, no, she isn't."

"Did she run off after you gave her a bath and got her dressed again?" she asks with a sigh.

He sighs himself and nods his head. "Yes. Somehow Max got into the bathroom so I left for a minute to put him back in his kennel. When I got back to the bathroom Jess was gone. I thought she would have gone straight to her room, but she isn't there."

She glances down at her son, shifting him up onto her shoulder to burp him. She looks back up at her husband. "Well keep looking for her, please; it's almost time for her to go to bed."

"I know, that's why I'm trying to find her." He turns around and makes his way up the staircase.

"Find her quickly, please," Skye calls out to him, turning her attention back to the baby in her arms.

"Jess?" Grant calls out. "Jess, where are you, angel?"

Hearing soft noises coming from the end of the hallway he walks down and peeks his head into his and Skye's room, finding Jessica sitting in the middle of the carpeted floor, dressed in her pajamas with her long damp hair hanging down her back, leaving a water spot right underneath; one of their family photo albums is lying open in her small lap.

"Hey there, angel." He smiles at the four year old as he steps into the room. "What are you doing?"

Jessica turns her head and smiles up at her dad. "Lookin at pictures."

"I can see that," he says, sitting down next to her and pulling the book into his lap. Jessica immediately leans up against his side. "Is this where you came after you escaped from the bathroom?" he asks her.

The little girl nods her head. "Uh-huh. Wanted to play hide-n-seek."

Grant nods. "Ah, I see. And how did you find these photo albums?"

"I 'member mommy talkin 'bout them to Auntie Jemma. She said she has so many of them."

Grant chuckles and nods. "She does have a lot of photo albums. And do you know why she has so many of them?"

"Why?"

"Because daddy won't stop talking pictures."

Grant and Jessica turn their heads to see Skye standing in the doorway to the bedroom, a small smile on her face as she leans against the doorframe.

Jessica smiles up at her. "Hi, mommy."

"Hi, angel." Skye smiles back, moving to sit down on the other side of her daughter. "I see you found one of the many photo albums I made from all the pictures that daddy takes."

"Mommy, why did you say daddy won't stop taking pictures? I like when daddy takes pictures. It's fun."

"I like it too, baby girl. I was just playing around when I said that. In fact, I actually love it when daddy takes pictures all the time."

"And you can blame your mom for me taking so many pictures all the time," Grant says to his daughter. "She's the one who gave me the camera that I use to take all my pictures with."

Jessica tilts her head. "Really?"

Grant nods his head. "Mm-hmm. It was the first Christmas we celebrated together, but we weren't dating yet, we were still just friends. And mommy got me a Polaroid camera as a present."

"Why?" Jessica asks.

"Because," Skye begins, "your daddy is very difficult to shop for. And I wasn't really sure at the time what things he liked. But I remembered a picture I saw of him at his Gramsy's house for Christmas when he was little, and how it was one of his favorite times. So I thought I'd get him a camera so he could take more pictures and make more memories like that one with people he cares about." She smiles down at her daughter, running a hand gently through her hair.

"Is that why daddy always has his camera everywhere?" Jessica asks. "And is always taking pictures of everything?"

Skye nods her head. "Yep. He's always taking pictures of everything."

"You know you love the pictures I take," Grant says to her with a smile.

She smiles back. "Of course I do. That's why I put them in photo albums so they're all safe in one place and we can look back at them and remember the stories."

"Will you tell me?" Jessica asks, gaining her parent's attention again.

Skye looks down at her daughter. "Tell you what, baby?"

"'Bout the pictures. Papa said pictures have stories. Like the ones 'bout Cap."

Skye sighs at Coulson's persistence to try and turn Jessica into as big of a Captain America fan as he is.

She nods her head with a smile. "Yes, Papa is right; every picture does have a story. We won't tell you every story, but we'll tell you a couple tonight before you go to bed. Which story do you want to hear about first?"

Jessica looks down at the photo album and flips through it. "This one." She points to the first photograph in the album, the one of Skye drinking champagne on that first New Year's celebration all those years ago.

Grant smiles as he pulls his daughter closer to him. "That is the very first picture of mommy that I ever took with my camera."

Jessica looks up at him. "Really?"

Grant nods his head. "Mm-hmm. It was New Years Eve and we were all getting ready to celebrate the ball dropping in New York. Your mom took a drink of her champagne just as the clock struck midnight and I snuck her photo when she wasn't looking."

"Did mommy get mad?" Jessica asks.

Grant chuckles and shakes his head. "No, she didn't get mad. She kissed me."

Jessica's eyes go wide. "She kissed you?"

He nods his head. "Yes she did. Right on my lips."

"Ew." Jessica scrunches up her nose, making her look just like Skye.

"It wasn't that gross," Skye tells her daughter. She smiles up at her husband. "It was actually very nice."

Grant smiles back. "And that's when mommy and I started dating."

"What about this one?" Jessica asks, pointing to another photo on a different page in the book. It shows Skye standing with a wide smile on her face, a poorly made crown sitting on her head, and a makeshift trophy held in her hands.

Grant chuckles as he looks at the photo. "That one is a really funny story. Mommy got into a prank war with Uncle Trip and Uncle Lance. Those three pulling pranks on each other at all hours of the day was always really crazy; everybody had to stay on high alert because we didn't know where or when the next prank was going to happen."

"Did mommy win?" Jessica asks. "'Cause she has a crown and a trophy. That's what you get when you win."

Skye nods her head. "I did win. Because I'm the best at pulling pranks."

"Although, I still don't think your last prank should have actually counted as a prank, but the look on Hunter's face was priceless either way," Grant tells her.

"What did you do, mommy?" Jessica asks eagerly.

"I made Uncle Lance and Uncle Trip think that they lost all the money in all of their bank accounts," Skye says to her daughter, smiling proudly.

Jessica eyes go wide. "You did?"

Skye nods her head. "Mm-hmm. Uncle Trip thought it was pretty funny after a second, but Uncle Lance was really mad. He thought it was real and that he had actually lost all of his money. Aunt Bobbi calmed him down and then he and Uncle Trip admitted that it was a good prank. So they named me the champion."

"And you got a crown and a trophy," Jessica states.

Skye nods. "Yes I did. But we didn't originally plan on having a crown and trophy, so your Uncle Fitz put something together for me. Your daddy took that picture right after they crowned me."

Jessica smiles. "Cool. What about this one?" She points to another photo in the album, closer to the back of the book.

Skye sighs. "This is the last one, okay? Then it's off to bed for you."

Jessica nods her head. "Okay."

Grant and Skye look down at the photo and smile to themselves. The photo is a silhouette of Skye while she's pregnant, standing near one of the windows on base and leaning against the wall sideways with her hands wrapped around a cup of tea.

"This one," Grant starts, "is probably one of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken of mommy."

"Why?" Jessica asks.

"Because that's when mommy still had you inside her tummy," Grant tells his daughter, poking her side making her smile and giggle. "And it was almost time for you to be here, so I wanted to get one last photo of you and mommy like this. Your mom didn't know I took that picture because she was walking around, trying to make you get here faster. She wasn't dressed up all fancy, and didn't have any make up on, but I never thought she looked more beautiful than she did in that moment, so I knew I had to take her picture."

"Wow." Jessica smiles up at her dad. "Another one," she says, quickly flipping through the photo album again to find another picture.

Skye shakes her head and takes the book from her daughter, closing it and holding it in her lap. "Nope, I said that was the last one. Now it's time for bed."

"But mommy..."

"Don't argue," Skye says. "Go on up to your room. Daddy and I will be there to say goodnight in just a few minutes."

Jessica sighs. "Fine." She stands up from the floor and makes her way out of the room and downstairs towards her own bedroom.

"Is that really one of your favorite pictures you've taken of me?" Skye asks her husband, standing up from the floor and holding the photo album in her arms.

Grant stands up and leans over to give her a kiss. "Of course it is," he says with a smile. He pulls back and looks down at her. "You always look beautiful to me no matter what."

"You are such a charmer." She laughs quietly. She puts the photo album back on its shelf before turning back to her husband. "Now come on," she says, grabbing his hand in hers and linking their fingers together, "I think someone is waiting for us to say goodnight to her."

"Well we wouldn't want to keep her waiting." He smiles, gently tugging her out the door and down the stairs toward their daughters' room.

.

.

.

"Mommy! Daddy! It's Christmas! Wake up! Wake up!" Jessica bounces excitedly on the end of the large bed, scooting closer to her parents as she does so.

Skye groans, shifting on the bed until she's on her back, cracking one eye open to look up at her daughter. "What time is it?"

"Time for presents!" Jessica exclaims, leaning over her mom. "Come on, mommy!"

"Grant, tell your daughter to stop being so loud." She rolls over and buries her face into her pillow.

Grant lets out a large yawn as he rolls over onto his back and stretches his arms out above his head. He opens his eyes and lets a small smile grace his lips when he sees his daughter. "Hey angel," he greets her.

Jessica smiles at him. "Hi, daddy. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Jess. Come here." He holds his arms open to her, letting her crawl across the bed and curl up against him.

"Daddy, can we open presents now?"

"Of course we can, Jess," he tells his daughter. "But first, let's leave mommy to wake up on her own and we'll go get started on breakfast."

"What about Andy?" Jessica asks.

"Mom will get him when she wakes up."

"Okay. Can we have pancakes?"

"Absolutely," Grant says with a nod of his head. "Come on." He gestures with his head toward the door and Jessica proceeds to crawl over to the edge and then slide down off of the bed.

Grant leans over Skye and whispers in her ear, "We'll go get breakfast started while you finish waking up. Don't forget to grab Andy when you come and join us. And don't take too long." He drops a kiss to her temple before climbing out of the bed and trailing after his daughter.

"Here you go, Jess," Skye speaks up. "It looks like this one is from Santa." She hands her daughter a medium sized wrapped gift.

"Thank you." Jessica smiles up at her mom as she sets the box down on the floor in front of her. She puts her full attention on the box and starts ripping into the paper, throwing it off to the side and revealing a cardboard box underneath of it. Pulling back the lid of the box, and removing some of the tissue paper, Jessica squeals when she sees what's sitting at the bottom.

"What is it, Jess?" Grant asks with a small smile on his face.

She pulls her present out of the box and holds it up to show her parents. "It's a camera! Just like the one daddy has!"

Skye smiles at her daughter. "Wow. That's pretty neat."

"Daddy!" Jessica shouts, standing up and moving so she's directly in front of Grant. "Santa brought me a camera so now I can be like you and take lots of pictures all the time."

Grant smiles. "I know, angel. After you finish opening all the rest of your presents I'll show you how to use it, okay?"

Jessica nods her head. "Okay." She leans forward and gives Grant a kiss on his cheek before going back to her spot on the floor.

"Think the camera was a good idea?" Skye asks her husband as she continues to nurse Andy.

Grant smiles and nods his head. "Absolutely. I just hope she doesn't break it somehow before I can show her how to use it."

"Fingers crossed." Skye smiles and turns her attention back to Jessica, watching as the little girl inspects her new camera very closely.

.

.

.

"Papa!" Jessica exclaims with a wide grin, breaking free of Grant's hand and running into the lounge room at the base as soon as she sees the older man.

Coulson turns around to see Jessica and his eyes immediately light up. "Hey Jessie." He steps toward her and stoops down to lift her up into a hug, pressing kisses to her cheek. "How are you?" he asks her, settling her on his hip.

"Good," Jessica replies. "It's Christmas!"

Coulson chuckles. "I know it is. That's why you're here, so we can all celebrate Christmas together and have a big family dinner."

"Papa, guess what?"

"What?"

"I got a camera like daddy's from Santa."

"That's awesome, Jess. Did you bring it with you?" he asks the four year old.

"Of course she did," Skye says, stepping forward with Andy in her arms, the diaper bag slung over one shoulder. "She takes after her father; he brought his camera as well. He takes that damn thing everywhere we go."

"To capture all the moments I want to cherish forever," Grant reminds his wife. "Just like you suggested I do when you got it for me, remember?"

She nods her head. "Mm-hmm, I remember very clearly. Sometimes I really regret getting you that camera."

"No you don't," he tells her with a smile, leaning down to give her a quick kiss. "You love my pictures, that's why you put them all in photo albums."

Skye rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Let's just celebrate this wonderful family centered holiday."

"Yeah!" Jessica exclaims from Coulson's arms. "Mommy, I want my camera so I can show everybody."

"Later, baby girl," Skye tells her. "We're going to have dinner really soon. So go get your little butt to the bathroom and wash up, please."

Jessica sighs. "Fine." She slides down out of Coulson's arms and makes her way out the room and toward the bathroom.

* * *

"Alright, everyone, time to celebrate the New Year." Skye smiles wide as she enters the lounge, carrying a bottle of sparkling cider in each hand.

"What, no alcohol?"

"We haven't had alcohol at our parties in a long time, Joey," Skye says to the man on the couch. "Ever since agents started having kids there's pretty much been an unspoken 'no alcohol' policy when we have get togethers. You know that as well as everyone else."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," he replies.

"Uncle Joey!" Jessica exclaims as she runs into the room and toward the older man, immediately climbing up into his lap.

He smiles at her. "Hey, little one."

She smiles back. "Hi. Guess what?"

"What?" he asks.

"I'm gonna stay up all night to watch the ball drop," she says proudly.

"Is that so?"

She nods her head. "Yeah. And I wanna get a picture of mommy and daddy."

"You do, do you?"

She nods her head again. "Uh-huh. Like the one daddy took of mommy the first time."

"Well that sounds like a great plan," Joey tells her.

Jessica smiles. "Thanks. And I'm gonna use my camera." She holds up her Polaroid camera and shows it to Joey. "Do you like it?"

He nods his head. "I do like it. You showed it to me at Christmas, remember?"

She giggles. "Oh, yeah."

"Have you taken any fun pictures with it yet?"

Jessica shrugs. "I guess. Andy's boring 'cause he doesn't do anything yet. But I like taking pictures of outside."

Joey smiles. "Well I'm sure those pictures are very nice."

"Daddy says they are. And daddy takes really good pictures."

Joey smiles and nods. "That he does. Some of my favorite pictures are the ones he takes of you."

"Really?" Jessica asks.

Joey nods his head. "Absolutely. And if you're anything like your dad, you're going to be a great little photographer."

"Thanks, Uncle Joey."

"Anytime, kiddo."

.

.

.

"How you holding up over there, Jess?" Grant asks his daughter from where he and Skye are sitting together in one of the love seats, Skye perched comfortably in his lap with her legs thrown over the arm of the chair and one of her arms looped around his neck.

"Fine." Jessica lets out a yawn from her place curled up in Joey's lap.

"Nice try, angel," Skye says with a smile. "After the ball drops, you're going straight to bed."

"Okay." She leans back against Joey, clutching her Polaroid camera tightly in her tiny hands.

"Here we go," Jemma says excitedly from one of the couches, Fitz sitting right next to her with his arm wrapped around. "Time to start counting down."

"I'm so excited." Jessica smiles sleepily.

"Me too, little one," Joey tells her.

"10...

9...

8...

7...

6...

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Everyone in the room cheers loud in celebration, clinking their glasses together before taking a drink.

Grant smiles down at his wife. "Happy New Year, Skye."

Skye smiles back up at him. "Happy New Year, Grant." She leans up and presses her lips to his, resting one hand on his cheek.

"Hey Jess," Joey speaks up to the little girl in his lap, "better get your camera out quick." He points to where Grant and Skye are.

Jessica looks to where Joey is pointing and gasps when she sees her parents kissing. She fumbles for a moment with her camera as she sits up and then holds the camera up in front of her. She centers her parents in the shot, just the way her dad showed her on Christmas Day, and then quickly snaps the photo, just a few seconds before her parents break apart.

"Got it." Jessica smiles, pulling the photo out from the bottom of the camera and looking at it. She hands the camera and the photo over to Joey. "Look."

Joey smiles at the slightly angled photo of Grant and Skye. "Very nice. You are one talented little girl."

"Thanks." Jessica gives him a tired smile. She leans back against him and closes her eyes as she lets out a yawn, finally letting sleep overtake her.

Joey smiles down at the little girl in his lap, adjusting her slightly so she doesn't fall and relaxes back into his seat.

"And how's our little photographer doing?"

Joey looks up a few minutes later to see Grant and Skye making their way toward him. He smiles up at them. "Hey guys."

Skye smiles back at him. "Hey. I'm assuming Jess is asleep?"

He nods his head. "She is. Just a few seconds after the New Year hit she finally fell asleep. She managed to get a photo though before she did."

"What of?" Grant asks.

Joey smiles. "See for yourself." He holds the Polaroid photo up to them, allowing them to take it.

"Jess took this?" Grant asks.

Joey nods his head. "Yep. I was right here when she took it."

Skye smiles up at her husband. "She's a chip off the block."

"That she is," Grant says with a smile. "And I hate to move her when she looks so comfortable, but we need to get her into bed."

"She's fine where she is right now," Joey tells him. "I'll put her to bed for you guys in a little while once she's fallen deeper asleep."

"That shouldn't be too much longer then." Skye smiles down at her sleeping daughter. "She usually falls asleep pretty quickly and is a heavy sleeper."

"It's both a blessing and a curse," Grant says. "But are you sure you want to put her to bed for us?"

Joey nods his head. "Absolutely. It's no problem. You two head to bed. I'll even check on Andy for you when I put Jess down."

Skye smiles at her friend. "You are too sweet, Joey."

He smiles and shrugs. "I try."

"Well thank you, Joey," Grant says to him. He grabs Skye's hand in his.

"Not a problem. See you guys in the morning."

Skye smiles at him. "See you in the morning." She leans down to press a kiss to Jessica's forehead. "Goodnight, angel." She stands up straight and grabs her daughter's Polaroid camera. "I think we should probably keep this safe with us for the night. Now come on, I am very tired."

"Me too," Grant agrees. "Goodnight, everybody." He smiles and waves to everyone else in the room as he and Skye make their way out and toward their old bunk for the night.

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	4. Thinking Back and Looking Ahead

**Hey babes! Here's the fourth installment of 25 Days of Skyeward. This one takes place within the Max!Verse that my friend and I created together. You don't really need to read any of the other stories to enjoy this one, though some of them may give you a little background knowledge.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Lounging back on the couch in the living room, Skye watches the fire crackle in front of her, a mug of hot cocoa cradled securely in her hands with a blanket draped around her shoulders. A quick, soft thump draws her attention down to her slightly protruding stomach, a small smile crawling across her lips at the sensation inside her belly.

She rubs one hand against the side of her bump. "How you doing in there, kiddo?" she whispers. "Daddy and I can't wait to meet you soon. And next year you'll get to experience your very first Christmas with us. It's going to be so much fun. I promise."

"Talking to the baby again?"

Skye looks up to see Grant approaching her with a small smile on his face, Max right at his side like he always is. "Hey. Yeah. I want them to know my voice when they get here." She leans forward and sets her nearly empty cup on the coffee table.

Grant sits down next to her and places a hand by hers, smiling when he feels the baby kick against his palm. "I love that," he says with a pleased smile.

"Me too. I can't wait for them to get here, Grant. Next year for Christmas everything's going to be so much better with a baby."

"But also a lot crazier," Grant tells her. "Do you think the others will want to come over next year since it'll be the baby's first Christmas?"

"We can probably try to see if they'll be able to come for a little while," she tells him. "They probably won't be able to stay too long, though, since Jemma will most likely want to spend the holiday with Fitz and she's not really either of our biggest fans right now. But on the flip side, I don't think we'd be able to keep Katie away from the house once the baby gets here no matter how hard we tried. Have you seen her around my stomach whenever we go to the diner?" She lets out a small laugh.

"It seems like she really wants a baby of her own," Grant remarks, threading his fingers through Max's fur.

"She needs to find a man first," Skye responds. "Unless she decides to adopt or go to a sperm bank. I'm not one to judge. And I'm all for adoption even though I was one of the unlucky ones that never found a home as a kid. But I'm just glad I was able to get a kid the old fashioned way." She smiles at him and leans up to press a kiss to his lips. "I love you," she says against his lips.

"I love you too." He pulls back and lets out a breath as he leans back into the couch, wrapping his arms around his wife's shoulders. "Anything in particular you want to do right now?" he asks her.

She shakes her head and burrows deeper into his arms. "No. I kind of just want to stay right here and watch the fire. It's really relaxing."

"That it is," Grant agrees. "Do you ever think sometimes…?" he trails off in his question, not really sure how to word it.

"Occasionally I do," Skye teases her husband.

Grant rolls his eyes. "I didn't finish."

"So finish."

"You know how you made me watch that one movie the other day? The one where the guy made that wish he had never been born and the angel came down to make it come true?"

Skye raises a brow. "You mean _It's a Wonderful Life_?"

He nods. "Yeah, that one."

"Yeah, I remember. I had to force you to sit here and watch it with me."

"You know I don't like just sitting for hours and watching stuff on the TV. I get restless."

"What about when we have dinner?" she asks him. "We're pretty much always in here eating while watching something on the TV."

"That's different."

"How so?"

"It just is. Can I get back to what I was saying?"

Skye nods and adjusts her position so her feet are in his lap and she's leaning back against the arm of the couch. "You may continue."

"Thank you," he says, his hands automatically finding Skye's feet and starting to give them a massage. He takes a deep breath. "I was just remembering that movie, and it got me thinking about something."

"Which is?"

"What's one thing that you would wish for more than anything in this world?"

Skye tilts her head. "Wow. That's pretty good. Um, I don't know, that's kind of a tough question. When I was younger I would have said to have the perfect family, my parents included. That they would show up one day and take me away from Saint Agnes and whisk me off on amazing family adventures."

"And now?" Grant prods.

Skye breathes in deeply and rubs a hand absentmindedly across her stomach. "Now? Now I don't really need to wish for anything. I have a great job, great friends, live in a nice, small town, have an amazing husband, and an amazing baby on the way. What about you?"

"That I was never born."

Skye's breath hitches and her eyes go wide, her hand stilling on her stomach. "Grant?" she says softly.

"When I was a kid," he continues, "that's what I would have wished for, no hesitation. Even a few instances after the Fall, when I was in that really, really dark place, and even after the whole ordeal with Hive, I would have wished to never have been born if someone had come to me saying they could grant any wish."

"Well what about now?" Skye asks him cautiously.

Grant looks up at her. "Now I'm glad that my life isn't like a movie and that whatever wishes I may have made growing up never came true. Because for the first time in my life, I'm genuinely happy with how things are going for me."

Skye smiles at him. "So am I. I don't think I'd change a single thing about it."

"There's one thing I would change," Grant admits.

Skye brows furrow. "What's that?"

"My anxiety and panic attacks. I hate feeling like this all the time," he says with a frown.

"But it's gotten a lot better ever since we came here," she says to him, sitting up and moving closer to him, resting one hand on his cheek. "And I'm really proud of you for that. You've made so much progress in so many ways and this baby is extremely lucky to have you as a father."

"I'm extremely lucky to have the both of you," he tells her, his arms wrapped around her waist to keep her close. "I don't even want to think about what my life would have become if you hadn't saved me from SHIELD after everything that happened."

"We saved each other," she tells him. "And it's a very good thing we'll never have to find out what might have happened."

"Yes it is." He smiles at her and leans forward to press a kiss to her lips before bending down and pressing a lingering kiss to her stomach.

Skye smiles and runs her fingers through his hair, her heart fluttering at the sight of him talking to their unborn child.

"You're gonna be a pretty great dad, you know that?" she says once he's done taking to her stomach and sits up.

He looks at her. "You're going to be an even better mom. And this kid is going to have a pretty great childhood. Especially when Christmas rolls around again."

Skye nods. "Definitely. Next year Christmas is going to be so beyond epic. Just think about it, babe. Matching pajamas for the three of us, pictures of the baby on Santa's lap, new traditions to start, seeing the way our kids' eyes light up when they open their presents. It's going to be amazing. Better than any Christmas I've ever experienced."

"Or me."

Skye's brows furrow. "You guys didn't celebrate Christmas?"

"No, we did. But for my parents, it was never about us kids or the fun traditions. They always threw these really lavish parties for all their socialite friends and never really paid much attention to us. Gramsy did the best she could to help us try and enjoy the holiday, but sometimes she wasn't able to make it much better. I can't remember ever having a good memory of Christmas growing up. This is the first time that I'm actually happy at Christmastime. And you're a big part of that."

Skye smiles softly. "You're a big part for me too. Christmas at Saint Agnes was never really about the fun stuff, and I was never in a foster home long enough to be there for Christmas."

"What did you do at Saint Agnes for Christmas?" Grant asks her.

"The Nuns made it all about God and Jesus and all that stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that, if that's how people choose to celebrate the holiday. But having to go through the same stuff every Christmas for sixteen years really gets old after a while. Especially when you see a kid who got adopted and they're talking about all the fun stuff they did for Christmas."

"That's too bad," he says.

Skye shrugs. "It's in the past, not much I can do about it now. Except for using this baby as an excuse to go crazy next year and do all the things I never got to do at Christmas when I was a kid," she says with a smile. "You better prepare yourself now, babe, I'm not going to hold back at all."

Grant chuckles and leans forward to kiss her forehead. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Full disclosure, I've never actually seen** _It's A Wonderful Life._

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	5. Nana Knows Best

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya. This one is a sort of follow up to the previous story, as they take place within the same universe, the Max!Verse. This one was definitely a lot of fun to write.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

A loud knock at the front door sounds, drawing Skye's attention. "Adian!" she calls out to her son as she finishes changing her daughter's diaper. "Baby, can you go and get the door? But make sure to ask who it is first."

"Okay, mommy." Adian jumps up from his spot on his bedroom floor, running out of the room and toward the front of the house. "Who is it?" he asks, leaning right up against the door.

"It's your Nana May."

Adian gasps. "Nana May!" he exclaims once he pulls open the door to see his pseudo-grandmother standing on the other side, a bag filled with wrapped gifts sitting on the porch next to her. He steps forward and wraps his arms around her in a tight hug. "I missed you so much!"

May smiles as she hugs him back. "I missed you too, Adian. Are you having a good break from school?"

Adian leans back and nods. "Yeah. So much fun."

"But he's also getting kind of annoying," Skye says as she enters the room with baby Ava sitting on her hip. "I cannot wait for school to start up again after the New Year." She smiles at May and steps forward to hug her. "It's so good to see you again, mom."

"You too, Skye. How have you been?"

Skye sighs as she pulls out of the hug, adjusting Ava on her hip. "As well as I can be when I have a husband, a five year old, and a four month old to look after. Not an easy thing to do."

"No, I don't suppose it is. So it's a good thing I'm here to help take some of the pressure off." She sets the bag of presents she bought just inside the front door and closes it behind her. "Now hand me the baby," she says, reaching out to take Ava from Skye. "Hello, sweetheart," she says with a smile. "I've missed you."

"Would you mind keeping the kids occupied for a little while?" Skye asks the older woman. "I have something to take care of for work and Grant just left for therapy so he won't be back for a little while."

May nods. "Of course."

"Great, thank you so much. I'll try not to be too long. I just changed Ava so you should be fine there. I'll feed her when I'm done."

"We're fine here," May tells her, moving to sit down on the couch and adjust Ava in her lap. "You go and do what you need to do."

"Okay." She takes a deep breath and looks at her son. "Adian, be good for Nana May."

"I will, mommy."

She gives May a small smile and then turns to make her way out of the room and down the hall toward her office.

"Nana May, look at our tree," Adian says to his grandmother, grabbing one of her hands and pulling her over into the living room.

"Oh wow," May says, eyeing the decorated tree up and down. "It's beautiful."

"I pickeded it out," he says proudly. "Daddy put it up and then me and daddy put all the stuff on it. Ava didn't because she's still too little."

"Next year she can," May tells him.

Adian nods. "Yeah. And mommy says that this one is 'specially for Ava." He points to a round ornament hanging on one of the branches, the words 'Baby's First Christmas' written on it in cursive, with Ava Rose Ward written underneath.

"You have one too," May tells her grandson, pointing to another round ornament hanging on a different part of the tree.

"Yeah, I know." He looks at the tree for a moment longer before moving over to grab his tub of jumbo Legos and pull it into the center of the room, sitting down next to it.

May smiles softly and then walks over to the couch, sitting down on it and settling Ava in her lap.

Her phone buzzing in her pocket pulls her attention to it. She slides it out and looks at the screen to see a new text from Coulson **Where did you go? How long are you going to be gone?**

May sighs and types out a quick response _To visit an old friend. Be back after the New Year._

Hitting send, she slides the phone back into her pocket and looks at the baby on her lap. "Phil is being extra annoying today. Can you say 'Phil is annoying'?" Ava just gurgles in response. May smiles. "No, of course you can't. You can't talk yet."

"Nana May?" Adian speaks up, glancing up from his Legos.

"Yes, sweetheart?" May looks over at him, shifting Ava so the baby's back is against her chest.

"Is Uncle Mack and Uncle Fitz and Auntie Elena coming too?"

May shakes her head. "No, they aren't. Auntie Elena just had her baby so she and your Uncle just want to spend time as a family for Christmas this year. And your Uncle Fitz is spending time with his girlfriend."

"Oh. Maybe next time they can come."

May smiles softly. "Yeah. Maybe next time."

* * *

Rolling over in his bed, Grant wraps an arm around his wife and pulls her closer to his body, breathing in deeply and smiling at the familiar scent of her shampoo that wafts through his nose. "How much longer do you think we have?" he asks, knowing his wife is well awake by now.

"Probably not long," Skye replies, curling further into her husband's arms. "Any moment now Ava's going to wake up crying because she's hungry and Adian's going to run in here screaming about Christmas and wanting to open his presents."

Grant sighs. "Remind me again why we decided to have children?"

"Because we were bored with our lives and wanted some excitement?" she suggests.

Grant laughs quietly and presses a lingering kiss to her bare shoulder.

"Mommy! Daddy!"

Grant groans against Skye's skin at the loud pounding of fists on the bedroom door accompanied by their son's voice. "It's like he knows."

Skye laughs quietly and pulls out of her husband's arm, climbing off of the bed and moving toward the door. "Morning, Max," she greets the German Sheppard, leaning down to rub his head affectionately before turning to the bedroom door.

Pulling it open, she smiles when she sees her son standing on the other side, grinning up at her and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Hi, mama."

Skye laughs quietly. "Hi, handsome. What are you doing up already?"

"It's Christmas!" he shouts excitedly, throwing his hands into the air.

"Yes, I suppose that it is." She kneels down in front of him and whispers, "Why don't you go jump on daddy to wake him up?"

He grins. "Okay!" Adian runs past his mom and climbs up onto the bed, jumping on Grant, knees first, and then crawling down so he's right in his face. "Merry Christmas, daddy!"

Grant groans at the impact from Adian landing on him but manages to get out a smile. "Merry Christmas, bud. Are you ready to open presents?" he asks him.

Adian nods excitedly and bounces on the mattress. "Yeah."

"Breakfast first," Skye tells the two boys as she slips a tank top on over her bra. "Then we'll open presents." She walks over to the bed and leans down to give Grant a kiss. "I'm going to check on Ava. I'll meet you in the kitchen."

"Me too, mama," Adian says, leaning over his dad's body to his mom.

Skye smiles and gently grabs Adian's chin, giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Love you, my handsome boy."

"Love you too, mama."

Turning around, Skye walks out of the bedroom and down the hall toward her daughter's room, running a hand through her hair to try and get out any knots that appeared during the night.

Pushing the door open, she furrows her brows when she doesn't see the baby in her crib.

Exiting the room, she continues down the hallway and enters the living room, letting out a relieved sigh and smiling when she sees May standing near the tree with Ava on her hip.

"I was wondering why my daughter wasn't waking me up crying this morning."

May turns around and smiles softly. "I was already awake when I heard her starting to fuss. Knew you wouldn't be up yet so I figured I'd keep her company for a little while. But I'm assuming she's hungry now which is something I cannot help her with." She hands the baby over to Skye, Ava immediately nuzzling up against Skye's chest.

"I know, baby girl, I know," Skye says softly to her daughter, moving over to one of the couches to sit down. She pulls down her tank top and bra, not taking much effort to get Ava to latch on and start feeding.

Skye lets out a deep sigh as she leans back into the couch and closes her eyes.

"Everything alright?"

Skye cracks an eye open to look at May. "Just tired. I hate waking up early, and having two young children doesn't allow much time for sleeping in."

"Nana May!"

Both women turn to see Adian running into the living room, Grant and Max now far behind him.

"Good morning, Adian," May says to him. "Did you sleep well?"

Adian nods. "Yeah. It's Christmas, Nana May!" Adian shouts, smiling wide at his grandmother. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, Adian," May says back with a small smile and a quiet laugh at her grandson's enthusiasm for the holiday.

"I'm so excited for presents."

"After breakfast, kiddo," Skye reminds her son, adjusting her hold on Ava.

Adian frowns and folds his arms across his chest.

"Don't be like that, bud." Grant kneels down in front of Adian. "Your sisters' eating breakfast too," he tells the boy. "Why don't you show her that her big brother does the same exact thing?"

"She doesn't care. She's just a baby."

"Maybe she is," Skye says. "But it's still important to eat breakfast. Now get your butt up to the table and wait for your dad to make breakfast."

"Fine." Adian huffs and turns around to go into the kitchen, climbing up onto one of the chairs.

Grant sighs and stands up fully, looking over at the woman near the tree and nods at her. "May. Good morning. Anything in particular you'd like for breakfast?"

"I'm fine with anything," she tells him, much like she always does whenever he asks when she stays overnight.

"Great. Breakfast should be ready soon." He moves into the kitchen, leaving the two women alone in the room.

Skye lets out another deep sigh. "That's another few minutes before the craziness starts."

May laughs quietly as she sits down next to Skye, leaning back into the couch and letting her eyes close.

.

.

.

"Alright, baby," Skye speaks up to her son, shifting in her seat on the couch, "whose present do you want to open first?"

"Nana May," Adian tells her with a smile.

Skye smiles. "Okay. Nana May's present it is." She reaches down to grab the wrapped flat box from underneath of the tree, handing it over to her son.

Adian grins as he sets the present down in front of him on the carpet and tears into the paper. "A box?" he asks with a small frown, looking up at his grandmother.

"Your present is inside the box."

"Okay." He manages to get the lid off of the box, and gasps when he sees what's lying inside.

"What is it, kiddo?" Grant asks his son.

Adian looks up at his dad, a wide smile on his face. "It's Iron Man."

Grant's brows furrow. "What?"

"Iron Man, daddy, it's Iron Man." He lifts a small framed image of Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit, the helmet flip up, out of the box and holds it up. "Look! See?"

"Adian," May speaks up, getting the boys' attention. "Do you see the writing on it? Can you read what it says?"

"You got Tony Stark to sign a picture of himself?" Skye asks with an amused smile. "How easy was that to do?"

"All I could get out was 'can I get a signed', before he immediately had JARVIS print out a photo of himself and asked me who it was for."

"I've never actually met him, but that definitely sounds like something he'd do." She looks over at her son. "Have you figured out what it says yet, baby?"

"Almost. I don't know what all the words say. I know it says 'Adian' cause that's my name and I know how to spell my name. It's A-D-I-A-N."

Skye smiles and nods. "That's right. Do you want some help reading the rest of it?"

Adian tilts his head. "Yes please."

"Well I'm sure if you ask Nana May really nicely she'll help you figure out what it says."

Adian smiles and moves over to his grandmother, sitting down next to her on the couch and holding the photo out to her. "Will you help me, Nana May?"

May smiles at him. "Of course I will." She leans a little closer to him, holding onto the side of the frame. "It says, ' _To Adian. I'm sure you're a really great kid if you're as big of a fan of mine as your grandmother says you are. –Tony Stark, aka, Iron Man_ '."

Adian smiles with wide eyes as he stares down at the photo. "Wow. That's so cool."

"Mom, I'm pretty sure you've just made it impossible for me or Grant to give Adian a good present now. I don't think either of ours can compare to a personalized signed photo of Iron Man."

May just smiles and shrugs. "I'm his grandmother, it's my job to spoil him and give him the best presents."

"Well you've certainly given him an amazing gift," Skye remarks, looking over at her son showing the picture to baby Ava, the little girl sitting up in her baby swing, bouncing ever so slightly as she gums on the new stuffed animal she got for Christmas.

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	6. Caught on Camera

**Hey babes! Back with a new chapter for ya! This one's a bit short, but I still think it's pretty cute. This one also goes along with the Hollywood!AU that I created a while back. It's not important to read those previous stories before this, but it definitely wouldn't hurt. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"This was a good idea, right?" Skye asks her husband, adjusting her grip ever so slightly on her youngest daughter's hands, holding onto her a little tighter.

"What's that?" Grant asks, his eyes trained on their eldest children a few feet away from them.

"I asked if it was a good idea bringing the kids here," she says to him.

Grant turns more toward her. "It was definitely a good idea, Skye. It gives them a chance to get away from the bright lights of Hollywood that always want to get a look at them because of who their mother is. They're always hyper aware of everything around them because of all the cameras, so it's nice for them to not have to worry about any of that out there. Also, they're having fun in the snow. Look at them." He gestures to where Jessica and Andrew are having a snowball fight between the two of them. "Even Izzy's having fun." He looks down at the eight month old, smiling when he sees her kicking her boot covered feet against the snow beneath her, using her mom's hands holding onto hers for support.

"I know they're having fun," Skye says with a smile. "I'm having fun too. It's nice to get away from Hollywood for a while and just relax with my family."

"So why the question?" he asks her.

She shrugs. "I don't know."

Grant chuckles and bends down to pick up Izabel, hoisting her up into his arms, eliciting a squeal from the young girl. "Your mom is very silly. Can you say 'silly mommy'?" He gently tickles her stomach, making the girl laugh again and squirm in his arms. He settles the baby on his hip and smiles when he sees his wife looking at him with a small smile and her arms casually crossed over her chest. "What?"

Skye shakes her head. "Nothing, I was just thinking about how lucky we are right now."

Grant smiles, bouncing Izabel lightly on his hip. "We did get pretty lucky, huh?"

Skye nods. "Mm-hmm."

Biting her lip between her teeth, Skye reaches up and grabs hold of the ends of her husband's scarf and pulls him down closer to her so she can seal her lips against his.

"What was that for?" Grant asks, a small smile on his lips.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

.

.

.

"Hey babe!" Skye calls through the hotel room, her phone up in front of her. "Come here for a minute."

"What's up?" Grant asks, emerging from the bathroom, drying his hands on the small towel.

"You need to see this," she says, looking over at him. "Apparently we weren't able to escape all the cameras like we had hoped. Somebody saw us when we were outside with the kids and I guess they sent it to an online magazine or something."

"Did they get any shots of the kids?" he asks, his brows furrowed.

"Kind of. They got a shot of Iz, but only because you were holding her. It's probably one of my favorite pictures, though."

"Let me see." Grant sits down next to her and takes the phone from his wife, looking at the screen to see the image. It's of him and Skye standing outside in the snow, their lips pressed together while Skye is holding onto the ends of his scarf. "Well I can't say I don't like the photo."

Skye smiles and leans into him. "It is a pretty good one."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	7. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

**Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! This one goes along with a story I wrote a while back called** _Unexpected but not Unwanted_. **It's not entirely necessary to read that story first, as it's a good amount of chapters to read, but it does give a little insight into the background of this story.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"¡Mamá! Someone's here!"

Skye sighs from her place in front of the kitchen sink, warm water running through the faucet as she loads the dishwasher next to her with dishes.

"Can you see who's there, please?" she calls back to her daughter.

"Okay."

Skye turns back to the sink, using a sponge to clear the rest of the food remnants from the plate in her hand before setting the glass dish inside the bottom rack of the dishwasher and reaching for a new one.

A high-pitched squeal from her daughter has her turning her head to the sound.

"It's Aunt Bobbi and Uncle Lance!"

Skye smiles and turns off the faucet, setting the sponge down and wiping her wet hands on the fabric of her jeans. Moving out of the kitchen, her smile widens when she sees her two friends standing in the living room, her daughter clinging tightly to Hunter's neck, a wide smile on her tiny face.

"Hey guys," she says. "What brings you by?"

"They came for my play, mamá," Jessica tells her excitedly. "The Christmas play."

"Oh that's right," Skye says, feigning forgetfulness. "I knew we had something going on this afternoon."

"We can't wait to see you in the show today, munchkin," Bobbi says. "You're going to be great."

"Lo sé," Jessica says.

Skye laughs. "Geez, Jess, way to be humble. Go on and play in the living room, okay? We still have a few hours left until we have to leave."

Jessica sighs. "Okay. Uncle Lance, wanna play?"

"I would love to, squirt," Hunter tells the young girl, immediately carrying her into the living room where a basket of her toys are waiting for them.

Skye smiles at the sight before turning toward her friend. "Thanks for coming," she says. "Jess was a little worried you wouldn't be able to make it."

"We wouldn't miss this for anything," Bobbi tells her. "And how are you feeling?" she asks, gesturing to Skye's stomach.

Skye lets out a breath and runs a hand across her barely-there bump. "Alright. I know it's still early, but I'm really eager to find out what we're having this time around."

"Which do you want?" Bobbi asks her.

"Honestly, I think I'd be perfectly fine with either," she tells her friend.

"Personally, I'd like to have another daughter," Grant speaks up as he enters the room and wraps an arm around Skye's waist, holding her close. "Another beautiful little girl who looks just like Skye." He presses a kiss to her temple.

"You're such a sap, babe," Skye says to her husband, a small blush creeping up her cheeks. "You remembered about Jess' play, right?"

He nods. "Of course. And Kara said that she and Ben will be there too."

"Good. I'm sure Jess would read her the riot act if they missed the show."

Grant chuckles. "She probably would. And half of it would be in Spanish."

"Oh, I'd pay to see that," Bobbi tells them with a small smile.

"Do you know if any of the others are coming?" Skye asks Bobbi, leaning into Grant's side. resting one her hands on his where they sit comfortably against her stomach.

"I think May said that she'd try and make it. Coulson's caught up with some stuff and probably won't be able to get away. Mack and Elena should be there, and Fitz. Jemma said she might, but I think she's still trying to get used to the idea of you and Grant."

Skye sighs. "I figured that'd be the deal with her. But at least she's being honest and not trying to be all weird or anything about it."

Bobbi nods her head. "That is very true. I love Jemma, I really do, but the last thing we need today is her making things uncomfortable while we're all trying to be here for Jess' show."

Skye nods with a tiny smile. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

* * *

"Oh, look, here they come," Skye whispers as the curtains on the elementary school stage open up and a small group of preschoolers files out, all of them decked out from head to toe in costumes to make them look like Sugar Plum Fairies.

"Awww. She looks so adorable up there," Kara says to Skye, leaning toward her friend with a proud smile.

"Doesn't she, though?" Skye responds, watching as her daughter begins dancing to the music that starts to play through the speakers. "It could just be because I'm biased, but I think she's the cutest Sugar Plum Fairy up there. Hands down. No contest."

"Oh she definitely is," Kara agrees. "And she has really great rhythm and coordination. Better than any of the other kids up there."

"It's the gymnastics," Skye figures. "If it wasn't for that she'd probably be tripping all over herself. Like mother like daughter."

Kara laughs quietly. "I think a lot of her coordination comes from Grant. One of the most coordinated men I've ever seen."

Skye nods. "Yeah, you're probably right on that front." She leans over to her husband. "Grant, look at our baby up there."

Grant smiles, his eyes never leaving his daughter. "Yeah, I see her Skye. She looks beautiful up there. Best dancer too."

Skye can't help but smile at her husband and tear up a little at his words which she completely blames on the pregnancy hormones. She wraps one of arms around his and leans her head against his shoulder, smiling a little wider when she feels him press a kiss to the top of her head before focusing back on her daughter's performance.

.

.

.

"Auntie Kara!" Jessica exclaims, a wide smile on her face as she runs over to her godmother and launches herself into the older woman's arms.

Kara smiles and catches Jessica in her arms, hugging her tightly. "Oh, you did so good up there, ladybug. I'm so proud of you."

"Gracias."

"I loved every second of the show," Kara tells her. "My little ladybug is a star."

"No. I'm a Sugar Plum Fairy."

Kara laughs quietly and nods. "Right, of course."

"Uncle Ben!" Jessica shouts when she sees Kara's boyfriend standing just a little ways behind.

Ben smiles as he steps forward. "Hey, Jess. Great job up there."

"Thanks. Mamá, can we go get ice cream?" the young girl asks, looking over at her parents.

"I don't know," Skye says, teasing her daughter.

"Sí, lo sabes," she insists.

Skye laughs quietly and takes her daughter from Kara, holding her securely in her arms facing her. "Alright, angel, I guess we can go and get some ice cream."

Jessica smiles wide and leans forward to give her mom a kiss. "Gracias, mamá. Te quiero."

Skye smiles. "I love you too, baby girl."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	8. Crash Landing

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya. This one was pretty fun to write.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

She really doesn't know why she decided to do this alone. She's always been accident prone, so she honestly doesn't know why she thought this time would be any different than the other times she's hurt herself doing something completely mundane.

She's standing on a ladder, stretching out over the overhang on the front of her apartment trying to hang Christmas lights of all things. Definitely not the safest thing to be doing, but it's not like she has much of a choice.

"Almost…there…" she mutters under her breath as she stretches out as far as she can, trying to reach but with no avail.

Letting out a deep sigh, she leans against the ladder and pulls her phone out of her back pocket. Quickly unlocking it, she goes into her contacts and clicks on one of the first numbers in her favorites section, holding the device to her ear.

" _Hey, girl. What's up?"_

"Where are you?" she asks immediately, glancing up at the halfway hang string of lights.

" _Um, I'm at work. Why?"_

"Help me."

" _With what?"_

"Christmas lights, Trip. I need you to help me hang Christmas lights, you said that you would."

Trip sighs. _"Yes, I did promise you that. And I will help you first thing tomorrow morning since I don't have to work."_

Skye frowns. "Why not tonight after you get off work?"

" _Can't. Date night."_

She nods. "Right. This sucks, you know. I guess I'll just have to keep trying to put these up by myself."

" _You know you can just wait for me."_

"Eh. I'm impatient, we both know it."

" _Unfortunately, yes. Please be careful, okay? I don't need my best girl going and getting a whole bunch of broken bones before my wedding."_

Skye smiles. "I'll do my best. Tell Raina I said hi."

" _Will do. Love you, Skye."_

"Love you too. Bye."

" _Bye."_

Pulling the phone away from her ear, Skye locks the device and slides it back into her pocket.

Taking a deep breath, she looks up at the unfinished project in front of her with a new sense of determination and vigor. She can totally do this. She doesn't actually need any help.

Grabbing the string of lights again, she stands back up a little straighter and leans out, holding onto the roof for a bit more stability.

She honestly doesn't know what happened or how it happened, but one minute she's trying to hang lights and the next she's seeing her life flash before her eyes as she falls from the ladder to her death.

Only it's not a rock hard surface that she lands on. Well, it is in a sense, just not the cement one she had been expecting.

A quiet groan draws her attention to see a man lying next to her on the sidewalk. His eyes are closed, his face scrunched up, and he has flakes of snow littering his dark head of hair.

"Are you okay?" she asks carefully, shifting a little on the cold pavement.

"I'm fine. Just wasn't expecting to have someone fall on me today when I woke up this morning."

She almost laughs, the corners of her lips turning up. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I swear it wasn't on purpose or anything."

"It's fine," he assures her. He opens his eyes to look at her curiously. "What were you doing that caused you to fall on me anyways?"

She silently points up to the roof where her string of red lights is still hanging half strung up.

He glances up and then back at her with a nod of understanding. "Right."

"Yeah. And what were you doing by my house that caused you to get fallen on?"

He copies her previous movements, pointing off the side where a delivery truck sits against the curb.

"Ah. Delivery man."

He nods. "Yeah. Are you Skye Coulson, by the way?" he asks her. "Because if you are, then this is for you." He reaches beside him to hold a medium sized brown box out to her, some of the edges a little dented from hitting the ground.

She smiles and takes the package from him. "I am, thank you." She glances down at the box and her smile grows a little wider at seeing one of her closest friends' return addresses. She looks back at the man in front of her and takes a deep breath, setting the box off to the side. "So, since you know my name, I feel like I should know yours."

"Grant Ward," he tells her, holding out a hand.

She takes his hand and gives it a quick shake. "Nice to meet you, Grant Ward."

"Likewise, Skye Coulson."

Dropping his hand, Skye takes a deep breath. "Well, I should probably get this inside," she tells him, lifting the box up. "And finish hanging my lights. After I put ice on my entire body."

"Do you need help?" he asks her. "With the lights," he clarifies quickly with wide eyes at seeing her quirked brow. "Do you need any help hanging the rest of your lights?"

"Don't you have more deliveries to make?"

He shrugs. "Maybe."

"Are you sure you won't get in trouble? Because I'm really not worth you getting in trouble because you helped me instead of doing your job."

"I promise you it'll be fine. So do you want the help or not?"

She smiles softly. "I'd love some, thanks. My friend was supposed to help me, but plans changed and I was tired of waiting."

"Well that's unfortunate."

"Yes it is."

Grant stands from the sidewalk, brushing the snow off his tan work pants before holding out a hand to help Skye up.

She smiles at him as she accepts his help, brushing off her own clothes after she stands. "I'm uh, I'll be right back. I'm gonna go put this inside. And I'll make us some hot cocoa to enjoy after you finish putting my lights up. It's the least I can do."

Grant smiles at her. "Thanks. That's really nice of you."

She gives him a small smile as she turns to go up into her apartment, carrying the box in her hands.

Grant takes a deep breath as he tilts his head back to look up. "Now, let's see what we're working with here."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	9. Christmas Cookies Gone Wrong

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Damn it!" Skye whisper shouts under her breath as she pulls another burnt batch of cookies out of the oven, immediately dumping them into the nearby trash can already filled halfway with previous batches of extra crispy cookies.

She lets out a deep sigh as she sets the cookie sheet down on the counter next to the bowl containing her cookie dough.

She breathes in deeply through her nose, immediately regretting that decision when she winces at the strong aroma of burnt cookies wafting through her nose.

Carefully taking another deep breath, Skye steels herself and scoops another batch of cookies onto the tray, only after scraping off as much charred cookie bits as she can from the sheet.

Setting it inside the oven and setting the timer, she turns back toward the counter and assesses what dough she has left. Not quite enough for a full batch if she screws up the current one.

"Whoa. What the hell happened in here?"

Skye looks up from the counter to see her fiancé entering the kitchen, the dark tie around his neck loosened and the top few buttons of his dress shirt undone.

"I'm baking cookies," she tells him with narrowed eyes. "Do you have a problem with that?"

He gives her that same smile he always gives her as he moves closer. "No, I don't have a problem with it. It's just…this place looks a little bit like a war zone and you have flour all over you." He chuckles quietly as he brushes some flour off of her cheek.

Skye frowns. "Don't laugh at me, Grant."

"I'm sorry. But you look adorable right now." He leans down to press a kiss to her cheek, making her smile a little, and then pulls back to smile at her. "Honey, I love you, but you know you're not the best in the kitchen."

Skye sighs. "Yeah, I know." She straightens up a little. "I'm gonna go clean myself up. Can you keep an ear open in case the timer for the cookies goes off?"

He smiles and nods. "Yeah, of course."

"Great, thank you." She rises onto her toes and presses a quick kiss to his lips before moving out of the kitchen and down the hall toward their bedroom and bathroom.

She sighs when she gets a look at herself in the bathroom mirror. She really does have flour all over her, even in her hair. She doesn't even know how that was possible, but weirder things have been known to happen when she's in the kitchen. It's why she steers clear of it most of the time.

Taking a few minutes to herself she wipes off as much of the flour as she can from her face, hair, and clothing, as well as a few pieces of raw cookie dough that somehow got in her hair. That one actually surprises her a bit.

After wiping off the flour, she decides to just change her clothes completely, opting for a pair of her favorite sweat pants and one of Grant's old college t-shirts that is definitely her favorite if the fact that it always ends up in her dresser drawers is anything to go by.

Brushing out her hair and pulling it back up into a messy bun atop her head, she lets out a breath and looks at herself in the mirror one more time.

With a small nod, she turns off the light as she makes her way out of the bathroom and down the hall to the kitchen.

Her brows furrow in confusion at the smell emanating from the room as she gets closer, the fire alarm immediately going off as she sees smoke seeping through the cracks of the oven door. Her eyes go wide at the sound and she rushes further into the room, grabbing the fire extinguisher they keep under the sink.

Carefully pulling open the oven door after turning off the heat, she gasps at the sight of her cookies actually on fire. What the hell?

Aiming the extinguisher at the cookies, she pulls the pin and squeezes the trigger, sweeping the nozzle back and forth across the base of the flames.

Once the fire is put out, she bats at the alarm with a kitchen towel, the blaring noise soon going out, letting Skye fall back against the counter with a heavy sigh.

"Grant," she calls out once she gets her head together. "Grant, where the hell are you?"

A few seconds later, her fiancé comes sauntering into the kitchen, a little off kilter, with a crooked smile on his face. "Yeah?"

"What the hell happened? I asked you to take the cookies out when the timer went off. Why were they on fire? They were only in there for a few minutes, why the hell were they on fire?"

Grant's eyes go comically wide. "They were on fire? Are they okay?"

"No, idiot, they're not okay. They'll all covered in fire extinguisher foam." She frowns at the sight of the mess sitting on the oven rack. She looks back at her fiancé and furrows her brows. "Why were you in the living room? And why are you acting so weird?"

He shakes his head. "I'm not acting weird."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

Skye narrows her eyes and takes a few steps toward Grant, eyeing him cautiously as she gets closer. "You're drunk," she accuses after a few seconds.

"No, I'm not drunk."

"Oh, yes you are. I've known you for years, Grant, I know when you're drunk, and right now you're drunk."

"I can't be drunk," he tells her.

"Oh really? And why's that?"

"Because I only had a little bit."

"A little bit of what?"

His nose scrunches up. "That weird looking drink in the fridge. I know it wasn't alcohol, though, so I can't be drunk."

Skye's eyes go wide at the realization. "You drank the eggnog? Babe, I put bourbon in that."

"You did?"

She nods. "Yeah. How did you not know that was eggnog?"

"We've never had eggnog in this house before."

"So you just go drinking a random drink that you found in the fridge?"

"It smelled really good."

Skye lets out a sigh and steps away from him, leaning against the still messy counter on her forearms. "And now today is going to completely suck. You're half-drunk off the eggnog, my cookies were _on fire_ , and there's no way in hell I can get this kitchen cleaned up in time. I don't know why I thought this was going to turn out well. I'm screwed."

"Skye, honey, why are you making such a big deal out of this? They were just cookies. And it's not like I haven't been a little tipsy before."

She turns toward him, tears shining in her eyes and throwing her hands up in the air. "Because I wanted to impress her, okay? I wanted to impress your grandmother and prove to her that I'm good enough to be your wife."

Grant smiles softly at her, sobering up a little more at hearing her confession and takes a few small steps toward her. "Skye, you're being ridiculous."

"Grant…"

"I'm sorry. But you are. You don't need to try and impress Gramsy, she loves you."

She quirks a brow. "Does she, though? The first time I met her I was half naked in your bed. We were sixteen, Grant! And we hadn't even done anything to warrant the look she had on her face. And then I swear all the times after that she's had me under some kind of a microscope, just waiting for me to screw up so bad that she can point and laugh and say how she knew I wasn't going to be good for you. I want to prove her wrong."

Grant sighs and closes the small space between them, wrapping his arms around Skye's waist. "Honey, I love how much you want to impress Gramsy, I think it's nice. But at the end of the day, the only people whose opinions matter are you and me. We love each other and want to spend our lives together, so we're getting married. No one, not even Gramsy, can stand in the way of that. Do you hear me?"

Skye nods. "Yeah, I hear you. I just wanted today to be perfect."

"And it can still be perfect," he assures her. "So long as it's you, and me, and Gramsy, I think today is going to be a pretty good day."

Skye smiles up at him, lifting her arms to wrap them around his neck. "You always know the right words to say."

He smiles back. "It's a gift."

Skye rises up a little higher to press her lips against his. "I love you," she whispers.

"I love you too."

The door bell ringing pulls the both of them out of their little world they'd been in, bringing them back into reality and the day ahead of them.

"Do you want me to get it?" Grant asks his fiancé.

Skye sighs, falling back onto her feet. She shakes her head. "No, I'll get it. Have to face the music sometime, right?"

Grant smiles and drops a kiss to her forehead. "I'm proud of you."

Skye just smiles at him before removing her arms from his neck and taking a deep breath as she turns toward the front of the small apartment.

Walking up to the door, Skye rests a hand on the door knob, taking a few slow, deep breathes to try and calm her nerves.

Pulling open the door, she plasters a smile on her face when she sees the older woman standing on the other side. "Hi, Gramsy. Merry Christmas."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	10. A Flash of the Future

**Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! Was gonna post it way earlier this morning at like, 1 am, after I got home from work cause I couldn't fall asleep yet, but the wifi was being stupid so I had to wait. But I'm gonna post it now.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

A sudden bout of turbulence jerks Grant awake from his somewhat deep slumber. He's never been able to get too deep into sleep. Not in a very long time.

Standing on shaky legs, the floor beneath him still trembling, he crosses the short distance to the door. He slides it open and steps out into the main area of the Bus, seeing different items on shelves starting to fall to the floor.

"What's going on?" he asks when he sees Fitz emerging from his bunk.

"I don't know. I just woke up because of all the bloody shaking."

"Is it always like this?" Skye asks as she steps out of her bunk next to Fitz's. "Because I swear, if something happens and I die, the holidays are really going to suck."

Before he can answer her, there's another sharp jolt of the Bus, all of them losing their balance.

He stumbles on his feet and falls to his hands and knees, quickly recovering and sitting down on the ground, looking over at Fitz and Skye.

"You two okay?" he asks them.

They both nod and give him their reassurances.

"Good. Now slowly move back into your bunks and stay there. I'm going to go to the cockpit and see if May knows what's—"

He's cut off as something heavy from a shelf above him falls and lands on his head. His eyes close immediately as he falls forward, completely knocked out on the carpeted floor of the Bus.

.

.

.

Slowly gaining consciousness, Grant's entire body tenses up at the unfamiliar feeling beneath his body. He's in a bed, just not any bed he's familiar with. It's certainly not his bed on the Bus. But it's really soft and comfortable. Probably the most comfortable bed he's ever slept on.

Cracking his eyes open, he turns onto his back and silently observes the room around him. It's a bedroom, obviously. The walls are a muted blue color, with various picture frames and shelves hanging up around the room.

There's a large dresser directly across from the bed with a mirror attached to it. There's a nightstand on either side of the bed, different items set out upon them.

A laundry hamper is set in the corner of the room, with various other baskets and boxes around the walls of the room. Different toys and children's clothing are scattered across the carpet.

Where the hell is he?

"You're still sleeping?"

His head whips toward the doorway to see Skye stepping through and immediately making her way to the dresser. Her long brown hair is down and slightly waved.

"Look, I know you've really been embracing the whole 'stay-at-home-dad' thing, but it doesn't mean you get to sleep in all the time."

He blinks a few times as he stares at her. "What?"

She turns to look at him with furrowed brows. "Babe, are you okay?"

He stiffens a little at the term of endearment. "Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good. Jess needs to be picked up from Josie's in an hour and then taken to karate. Please do not forget the cookies for the party, okay? They're on the counter. I'm taking Andy with me because my meeting shouldn't be very long and we both know he'll just scream until he's red in the face if I don't take him with me."

Grant listens with an open mouth and wide eyes to all the new information being dumped on him.

"Grant, are you even listening to me right now?"

"What? Yeah. Sorry." He shakes his head. "Pick Jess up from Josie's and take her to karate. Cookies on the counter."

"Yes. I have a few errands to run after I'm done at work but I'll try and be back before it gets too late."

He nods. "Okay. Is Andy already awake?"

"He's down in his play pen in the living room. I have to leave now but I'll see you when I get home, okay?"

He nods again. "Yeah, okay." His eyes go wide again when she leans down to give him a quick kiss, one of her hands cupping his chin.

"And don't shave," she tells him, running her hand over his light stubble. "Beard burn sucks but I'll endure it because I love this look on you." She gives him another quick peck, smiling against his lips. "Love you."

"L-love you, too." He swallows thickly and does his best to give her a smile as she turns around and walks out the bedroom door.

Letting out a heavy breath, he falls back against the pillow and runs a hand through his hair and then down over his face. His fingers linger on his lips, the feeling of Skye's lips still present at the forefront of his mind.

It's then that he sees the glint of something metal and lifts his hand to see a thick silver band wrapped around the fourth finger of his left hand. He's almost positive that if he looked at Skye's left hand he'd find an identical one.

Glancing over to the nightstand next to the side of the bed he's in, he finally takes notice of the picture that's sitting on top of it. It's of him and Skye together. He's standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist, clasped together with her hands resting on top of his. She's leaning back against him, their faces next to each other and wide smiles on their faces. He's wearing a simple black suit and she's donning a beautiful white, strapless dress. It's a wedding photo. His and Skye's wedding photo.

Standing from the bed, he shuffles across the carpet and really starts to take notice of the other photos framed and hanging on the walls. They're mainly of him and Skye but there a few with two kids he's assuming are Jess and Andy; a little girl that looks just like Skye and a little boy that looks just like him.

Moving out of the bedroom, he goes down the hallway and then descends the stairs to the main level of the house.

Feeling a sudden grumbling in his stomach as he reaches the last step, he moves straight into the kitchen, looking around trying to figure out what to eat. He doesn't know where anything is or even what there might be to eat. He just prays that there's something he can eat in the house.

As he enters the kitchen, his eyes catch sight of a plastic box of cookies on the counter. The cookies for the party.

Sighing, he figures that the refrigerator is most likely a safe bet, there's probably at least one thing in there that he'll eat.

Standing in front of the refrigerator, he takes a moment and lets his eyes roam over the dry-erase calendar attached to one of the black, metallic doors.

In bright red lettering, two days from what he assumes is the current date, it reads 'OBGYN - 11:30am.'

Skye's pregnant. Again. With their third child. But she didn't look pregnant earlier. So it must still be early on in the pregnancy.

Instantly it feels like his head is spinning. Is this really happening? He could have sworn he was just on the Bus with a very not-pregnant Skye and all the others. How in the hell did this happen to him?

.

.

.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah…pumpkin?" he speaks up, glancing through the rear view mirror of the SUV, unsure of whether or not he has any nicknames for his…daughter.

Jessica giggles in the backseat, clutching her favorite stuffed elephant a little closer to her body. "Not pumpkin, daddy. Angel. I'm your angel."

Grant nods his head. "Right, of course. So, angel, what's your question?"

"What's Hydra?"

Grant's breath catches in his throat at the question. "What?"

"Josie's big sister learneded about it at school and she told me and Josie 'bout it and she said that Hydra was a whole bunch of bad guys who tried to hurt the good guys. But then the good guys stopped them and now they aren't here anymore."

"Oh, um, I'll explain it to you later."

"Okay."

That was certainly easier than he thought it'd be. But then again, he doesn't have much experience with kids and didn't really know what to expect.

This kid is definitely Skye's though; he knows that for a fact. If the look she gave him when he was a little late picking her up from her friend's house was anything to go by. She had a hand on her hip and everything, like a little mini version Skye. It was kind of eerie. But also nice, at the same time.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah, angel?"

"What did you and mommy get me for Christmas?"

"Um, I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"You want it to be a surprise, right?"

"Not really."

"Well it's better if it stays as a surprise," he assures her, hoping the answer will appease the small child. He really doesn't know what he's doing here. He's kind of just winging it with all of this.

"So, are you excited for your party today?" he asks the young girl, hoping to get her on some kind of long explanation.

"Yeah! Sensei said we're gonna do lots of super fun stuff and everything's gonna look like Christmas inside and I'm so excited, daddy!"

He laughs quietly at her enthusiasm. "I can tell. And do I need to stay with you for this party?"

She laughs quietly. "No, daddy. You hafta go back home and do daddy stuff and then come back and pick me up to take me home cause it's Christmas Eve. You know this, daddy. It's already programmed into you."

He gapes at her. "Because I'm a robot?"

"Yeah. But a really cool robot that acts like a person cause you got lots and lots of upgrades."

Man, this is most definitely, one hundred percent Skye's child.

.

.

.

"Alright, kiddo, time for bed."

"Mommy, no," Jessica protests from her spot sprawled out on the living room floor. She looks back over her shoulder at Skye. "We hafta stay up and wait for Santa."

"Sorry, angel," Skye says. "Santa won't show up if you're still awake."

"Yes he will."

"Hate to break it to you, baby girl, but he won't. I'm a very close, personal, friend of Santa's and I know for a fact that he won't show up if you don't go to sleep."

"But I'm not sleepy."

"And I don't care. Daddy and I want to go to sleep and we can't do that if you're not sleeping."

"Can I wake up super duper early?"

"Within reason," Skye counters. "No go get to your room, daddy and I will be there in a minute."

Jessica huffs. "Fine." She stands up from the floor, grabbing the corner of her favorite blanket and dragging it along behind her to room.

Skye lets out a sigh when the little girl is out of ear shot. "My goodness, she's so dramatic. And don't you dare say she got it from me." She gives a pointed look to her husband and Grant simply holds his hands up in defense.

Skye laughs quietly. "Think if we wait it out a little she'll fall asleep and we won't have to go in there?"

"It's a possibility. But it's also Christmas Eve and she's probably going to try and stay up as late as she can."

Skye nods. "You're right."

He smiles at her before taking a deep breath and shifting on the couch. "Hey, can I talk to you about something?"

"You know you always can. What's up?"

He shifts in his seat again. "Jess asked me about…Hydra today."

"What did you tell her?" she asks.

"I didn't know what to tell her," he responds.

"Babe, I know it's still a sore subject for you, but she's not going to love you any less, okay? Yes you may have been a part of that group, but you thought you were doing it for the right reasons. How could you have known that Garrett was going to go crazy?"

He lets out a shaky breath and nods his head, still not quite believing that this is real. "Yeah, you're right."

She gives him a small smile. "Of course I am. I wish I had found out sooner than I did, and differently too, but the absolutely best decision I ever made was hearing you out and listening to everything you had to say after everything went down."

"Really?"

She nods her head. "Absolutely. And I'd do it over and over again because I am in so in love with you and you are the best father to our children and I can't wait for this baby to get here because it's another little human being that's part you and part me and I couldn't imagine it any other way." She takes a few slow deep breaths to get her breathing back under control.

He looks down and finally notices the small hint of a bump underneath her shirt, his breath catching in his throat at the sight. He hesitantly reaches a hand out to gently caress her belly, a smile pulling at his lips.

"I hope he or she looks like you," she tells him. "I know Andy already looks a lot like you, but I hope this one does too."

He shakes his head and looks up at her. "No. I hope they look like you. You're beyond beautiful and I want our kids to have that too."

"Well you're not so bad yourself. So I'd say our children got pretty damn lucky in the looks department."

"Yes they did."

"Mommy! Daddy!"

Skye sighs heavily. "Well we better get in there before she keeps shouting and wakes up Andy."

He nods. "Right, yes, we should probably do that."

He waits for her to stand from the couch before following closely behind her to the stairs to go up to the second level of the house.

One moment he's walking behind her, listening to her as she tells him a few more things about her day, and the next he's lying awkwardly on the stairs, an uncomfortable throbbing at the back of his head.

"Grant?" he hears Skye calling out his name, panic and concern lacing her voice. "Grant. Wake up. Babe, come on. Grant. Grant! Grant Ward!"

.

.

.

"Ward! Ward? Ward."

His eyes slowly fluttering open, Grant lets out a quiet groan when he feels a sudden, massive throbbing at the top of his head.

"What the hell?" he rasps out.

"You got hit in the head by something when the plane was experiencing turbulence earlier. It caused a temporary coma but you were very much alive the whole time."

"Oh thank goodness. You're awake. I thought I was gonna have to go and find a new SO, which really would have sucked, by the way."

He turns his head toward the door of the Bus' med bay to see Skye stepping into the doorway, leaning sideways against the frame with her arms crossed casually over her chest.

"Skye." His eyes flit down to her stomach. "You're not pregnant."

Skye's eyes go wide and she stands up straight. "Um, no, I'm not. Last I checked you need to have sex with a guy to get pregnant which I haven't done since I've been aboard this plane the last few months. Are you feeling okay?"

He shakes his head to clear away the clear images of Skye with his children. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry. I'm uh, I guess I'm still a bit out of it."

She waves him off. "It's fine. I've been known to say weirder things when I'm hungover." She takes a deep breath. "But anyways. Are you really feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I promise I'm fine."

"Good. That's good."

"Hey, Simmons," he speaks up, glancing over to the bio-chemist.

"Yes?"

"Could I have a moment alone with Skye please? I need to speak to her about something."

Simmons immediately nods her head. "Of course. I'll be right outside if you need anything." She gives him a comforting smile before stepping just outside the room.

"You actually want to talk?" Skye speaks up as takes a few steps inside. "It's a Christmas miracle."

He laughs quietly. "Yeah."

"So what's up?" she asks him.

He breathes in deeply and shifts a little in his seat. "I have something I need to tell you. I'm not sure how you're going to react, but promise me you'll wait until the end to tell me how you're feeling, okay?"

She nods her head. "I think I can do that."

He lets out a breath. "Good. Thank you."

"Yeah, of course. You know you can always tell me anything."

Grant nods silently before taking a deep breath and then opens his mouth to speak, telling Skye every deep, dark secret of his past and present, wanting her to know the full truth, nothing held back. If he plays his cards right, maybe he can have what he saw. Maybe he really can find love and have a life.

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	11. Do It For the Warmth

**Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! This one's pretty short, but I still like it. The prompt I found for this one was "** _Oh no we stayed out too long and need to warm up better share the shower/hot chocolate to conserve resources_ **".**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Remind me again why we did that?"

"Because it was fun?"

"Fun or not, I'm pretty sure I'm freezing my nipples off. It was way too cold outside. And yes, I realize it's the middle of December so it's going to be cold. But it doesn't mean I have to be pleased about."

"Right. So we should probably warm up, then."

"Yes, Grant, I know. That is the obvious solution to our little problem here of being too cold."

"Good. I'm glad we're on the same page. So how do you want to warm up?"

"Maybe some hot chocolate. I'm really craving hot chocolate."

"You're always craving hot chocolate."

"Hot chocolate is a drink from the gods, okay?"

"So I've heard before. We should probably also take a shower, to help us warm up faster and get cleaned up a little too. But mostly to get warm faster."

"Good plan. Do you want to shower first? Or should I?"

"Actually, I was thinking that it might be better if we showered together."

"Oh really."

"Yeah. You know, that way we can save a little on the heating bill since it'd only be one shower instead of two."

"Uh-huh. I think I see your logic there."

"It's pretty sound logic."

"It certainly seems that way."

"..."

"..."

"So...are we taking the shower together or what?"

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	12. Mischief Under the Mistletoe

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya! This one's pretty short as well, but it's still a fun one.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

With an awkward chuckle, he points to the mistletoe above their heads, a nervous smile on his lips. He brings his hand down to rub at the back of his neck.

He watches the brunette in front of him, her eyes slightly wide as she stares up at the offending piece of shrubbery hanging above them.

"Do, uh, do you...I mean, we don't have to. If you don't want to." He's never been this bad with words, but when it comes to moments like these, he can never seem to find the exact right words that he wants.

"No, we should."

Now it's his turn for his eyes to go wide. "Are you sure?"

She shrugs. "It's tradition, right?"

He nods. "Yeah."

"It's just annoying when they put these things in literally every doorway in any building."

"It does get overwhelming," he admits, taking a small step closer to her. "Trying to avoid certain people so you don't have to kiss them."

"As well as trying to get others under the mistletoe so that you can kiss them," she adds, taking her own small step toward him. "You do know everyone's purposely been trying to get us together under the mistletoe all night, right?" she whispers.

He nods. "Oh yeah. They're not exactly subtle about. I think Hunter nearly shoved me under one earlier. He almost got caught under it with me."

She laughs quietly. "Now that I would have loved to have seen."

"Everyone here seems pretty determined to have us kiss tonight under the mistletoe."

She gets a sly smile on her face. "It's only fair that we give them what they want, right?"

He smiles and nods. "Absolutely."

Closing the space between them, he grabs her hips in his hands, pulling her close as he gently slides his lips over hers, his tongue running along the seam of her lips.

She obliges, breathing in through her nose as she deepens the kiss.

Pulling away after a moment, breathing heavily, their foreheads rest together and they have small smiles on both of their faces.

"I love you, Skye."

"I love you too, Grant."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	13. A Simple Misunderstanding

**Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya. This one was pretty fun to write. I love writing characters in high school.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"You're positive you want to do this in the middle of the school day?"

"Absolutely."

"You've got some serious balls, mate."

"You're odd."

"Obviously. But you're serious about this?"

"How many times are you going to ask me that today?"

"As many as it takes. Are you even positive that she's going to say yes? You're not even dating."

"And I'm hoping that this will change all that. You and I both know that she and I have been dancing around each other for a while. So now I'm making the first move."

"Well, I truly, truly wish you the best of luck today, mate."

"Thanks, Kebo."

"Anytime, Grant. Though, I'm mainly wishing you luck because I hope you didn't misread any signals and that you're right about you two just dancing around your feelings for each other."

"I'm right. Just wait, you'll see."

.

.

.

Taking a deep breath, Grant makes his way into the school cafeteria, straightening out his dark green t-shirt as he walks across the tiled floor.

"Excuse me, everybody," he speaks up once he reaches the middle of the cafeteria, a Santa hat adorning his head and a string of jingle bells hanging around his neck. He glances around the cafeteria before locking eyes with one brunette in particular. "I have something very important that I want to ask someone very special."

He watches as the girl in question stands a little taller and smiles at him.

"We've been dancing around this for a long time, and I think it's about time for a dance that we can both enjoy. Guys!"

All of a sudden, before anyone can really register what's happening, Kebo, Mack, and Trip emerge and move to stand to the right side of Grant, all three of them wearing Santa hats on their heads.

One by one, each guy lifts up his red or green t-shirt, words painted onto each of their chests in white.

On Kebo's chest, it reads 'Christmas', on Mack's it reads 'Dance', on Trip's it reads 'With', and on Grant's it reads 'Me?'.

"So what do you say, Princess? Wanna go to the Christmas dance with me?"

"Yes! Of course!"

Next thing he knows he's being bombarded by a petite brunette, her arms wrapping tightly around him in a hug, her face buried in his chest.

Grant glances down at the brunette girl hugging him tightly. But it's the wrong brunette.

He looks back up to see the intended brunette with her arms crossed and glaring daggers at him.

"Ohhh, crap."

.

.

.

"Wow, mate. That seriously backfired on you."

"Yes, I'm fully aware of that, Kebo," Grant mutters as he works to scrub the paint off his chest. "Thank you for reminding me."

Kebo grins. "Happy to."

Grant rolls his eyes at his friend and continues scrubbing at his chest.

"Grant Ward, you better have a damn good explanation for me right now."

Lifting his head, Grant spins to the door of the school bathroom to see his best friend standing in the doorway, the brunette he actually intended to ask to the dance.

"Skye."

"Oi! Would you get out of here? This is the boys' bathroom, in case you haven't noticed."

Skye rolls her eyes at Kebo. "Shut up, Kebo. I'm here to talk to Grant."

Kebo opens and closes his mouth a few times before nodding his head. "Right. I'll just be over here then." He points to another area of the bathroom, moving over there and putting his head down as he scrubs at his own chest, trying to remove the paint.

Skye moves further into the bathroom, making her way over to Grant and stopping right in front of him, her eyes still narrowed at him.

"Skye, I promise—"

"Shut up." She grabs the rag out of his hand and wets it underneath the faucet before bringing it up to his chest. She silently scrubs at the paint on his chest for a solid minute before finally breaking the silence between them.

"I should hate you right now," she says to him.

He nods. "You should."

"I feel like a complete idiot," she continues, ignoring his comment. "I thought you were asking me to the dance. Especially when you said Princess. That's my nickname, Grant."

"It is. And I was."

"Then why did Paula Atkins hug you and say yes to your proposal?"

"That's on me," he tells her. "Paula's had a really big crush on me since the first day of school."

"I can't see why," Skye mutters under her breath, her hands lingering on the barely there definitions of Grant's abs.

Grant smirks for a moment before dipping his head to try and look in Skye's eyes. "I should have made things more clear by actually saying your name and making sure Paula wasn't anywhere nearby. I thought it was obvious to pretty much everyone in the entire school that I was asking you to the dance."

"Everyone except Paula, apparently."

"Yeah, apparently. But hey, we can still go to the dance together. I can find Paula and tell her that—"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

He furrows his brows. "I'm confused. I thought you didn't want me to go to the dance with Paula."

"I don't."

"But now you're telling me that I have to?"

"Yep."

"Okay. But why?"

Skye sighs and looks up at him. "Grant, the poor girl thinks you asked her to the dance, so just take her to the dance. I promise you it's fine, I'll be fine. Especially because I know that you don't like her like that."

He shakes his head. "I don't."

"And because I know you're going to save at least one dance for me."

"Always."

"Also because I know that next year, our senior year, you're going to go even more all out when you ask me and make sure that it's clear to everyone that you're asking me."

"Absolutely."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **The prompt I had found for this one was "** _There's this Christmas dance & I wanted to ask you to go with me, so I planned this elaborate idea to ask you but when the plan went through this girl that has a crush on me was there too & thought I asked her to the dance instead but oh gosh I didn't mean for this to happen but now you're mad at me & I don't know how to make it up to you **".**_ **I feel like it deviated a little bit at the end, but I still love it. :)**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	14. Matchmakers of the Elven-sized Kind

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya. Man, I'm on such a good roll here. Thank goodness for having the majority of these already completed or I'd be screwed. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Mommy! Hurry up! We need to see Santa before he leaves back to the North Pole."

"Relax, angel," Skye says to her daughter. "Santa's not going anywhere for a while. There's still a huge long line of people waiting to see him."

The little girl sighs. "I know, mommy. But if you keep walking so slow the line will get longer and we'll have to wait for longer to see him."

"Okay, okay, I'm walking faster." She picks up her pace a little. "Happy now?"

"Yes."

"Jessica!"

"Who's that, baby girl?" Skye asks her daughter when they see a little blonde girl standing a few feet away, waving excitedly in their direction.

"That's my friend. Her name's Sara. Can we go say hi?"

"Of course."

"Cool. Sara!" Jessica takes a few steps away from her mom, meeting Sara in the middle and immediately pulling her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Are you here for Santa?" Sara asks.

Jessica nods her head. "Yeah. Are you?"

"Yeah. I'm so excited."

"Me too."

"Sara? Sara, where'd you go?"

Sara giggles and then turns around. "I'm over here, daddy."

Skye watches as a very handsome man with a full head of dark hair approaches them, a relieved sigh escaping past his lips. He kneels down in front of his daughter and places his hands on her shoulders, dipping his head to look her in the eyes. "Bear, you know you can't run off like that."

"I saw my friend."

"Even if you see your friend you can't just run off, okay?"

"Okay. I'm sorry, daddy."

"Thank you." He takes a deep breath. "Now, introduce me to your friend," he says with a smile.

Sara beams. "Daddy, this is Jessica. She's in my class at school."

"Oh. Well, it's very nice to meet you, Jessica."

"You too."

"And you must be Jessica's mom," he says, looking up with a small smile still on his face.

"Skye," she replies, letting him know her name.

"Grant," he says back, standing back up to his full height and holding a hand out to her. "Nice to finally meet you."

She accepts his hand. "You as well. Is your wife here with you?" she asks him, dropping his hand and sliding it into one of her pockets.

He shakes his head. "No."

"Oh. Girlfriend?"

He shakes his head again. "Nope. It's just me and Sara these days. What about you? Husband accompany you to the mall?"

"No. He and I never made it that far."

"I don't have a mommy," Sara speaks up, startling both adults.

"Yes you do, Sara," Grant tells his daughter. "She's just not here anymore."

"Well I don't have a daddy," Jessica pipes in.

"Yeah, you do, angel," Skye corrects her daughter. "He's just...not around all the time."

"Grant can be my daddy."

Skye's eyes go wide. "What?"

"He's already Sara's daddy. And is everywhere all the time with her. He can be my daddy too."

"Yeah!" Sara agrees with a pleased smile. "And you can be my mommy," she says to Skye.

"Um, girls, I don't think that's going to work."

"How come?" Jessica asks her mom.

"Because Grant and I don't even know each other. And you can't just say that somebody is going to be your mommy and daddy."

"Oh," Jessica says. She tilts her head. "Well I still want Grant to be my daddy."

"And I want you to be my mommy."

"Can we go play?"

"Uh, sure, baby girl. If it's okay with Sara's dad."

"Stay in the play area," he tells both girls with a stern look.

"Okay, daddy!" Both girls shout before running off toward the child's playground enclosure.

"I'm sorry," Grant and Skye speak at the same time before letting out small laughs.

"I really am sorry about my daughter," Skye tells him. "I forgot how blunt and persistent she can be sometimes. My parents like to say that it's karma for how I was as a child."

Grant smiles. "It's fine. She seems like a sweet girl."

Skye smiles proudly. "She's the light of my life, my little angel. Even if she doesn't always act like a little angel."

Grant chuckles quietly. "Yes, I know how that goes. Sara can be a bit of a handful sometimes, but I love her. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays to spend with her too. There's just something about this time of year."

Skye nods. "Mm, I hear you. My little girl loves Christmas so we go all out for the holiday. Though, I can't say I'm all that upset about it considering I love the holiday too."

"It's a pretty fun holiday, especially with children." He shifts on his feet. "Hey, so uh, I know it might seem completely out of left field, and I don't want you to feel pressured by what the girls said, but uh, would you maybe like to go out to dinner sometime? With me?"

"Wait, really?"

He nods his head. "Yeah. I mean, uh, it's been a while since I've been out on a date because I've had Sara to take care of, but you're a single parent too, so I figured it couldn't hurt to ask, right?"

"Right. I uh…"

"You don't have to say yes right away," he tells her. "Take your time to think about it, and then let me know when you're ready. I'm sure we'll see more of each other since our daughters are such good friends."

Skye nods. "Yeah, okay. I think I can do that."

"Great."

"Mommy! Can we go see Santa now? We're done playing."

Grant and Skye turn their heads to Jessica and Sara quickly running toward them.

Skye bends down to lift her daughter into her arms. "Of course we can go see Santa, baby girl. And maybe Sara and her dad would like to stand in line with us."

"Yeah!" Sara exclaims.

Grant laughs quietly at his daughter's enthusiasm, lifting her into his arms and hugging her, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Well then I guess we better get in line to see Santa."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	15. Venting with Vodka

**Hey babes! Little late on the uploading here today, but I've had a pretty busy day and haven't been able to upload until now. This one was pretty fun to write. I know I've said that for a lot of them, but it's true. These were all pretty fun to write. :)**

 **The prompt I found for this one was "** I _work as a bartender and you're here at 3 am on Christmas Eve taking shots because you got dumped and I really just wanna go home and sleep but now you're crying and I feel bad_ **". I didn't quite stay on topic here, I don't think, but it's still good. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"You get stuck with the graveyard shift again this year, man?"

Grant sighs and nods his head. "Yeah. Tomorrow too. But it's not like I have anything better to do right now."

The man laughs quietly and nods. "Yeah, I guess that's true. You working again for the New Year?"

Grant shakes his head, swiping a washcloth across the bar top. "Not till after. Guess my boss figured I could use a few days off after this shift. I'm just glad I don't have to train the new guy. I hate training new people."

The man laughs again. "Right. Well I have to get going, but I guess I'll see you in a few weeks."

Grant nods at him. "Yeah, of course. See you then."

Grant watches as the man leaves, the door to the bar swinging closed behind him, and then turns his attention on closing down the bar as much as he can in that moment. There's only so much he can do because people like to trickle in during the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning for a quick drink before heading back out.

He's in the backroom doing inventory when he hears the door open and close the cliché bell above the door that his boss insisted on getting chiming, signaling a new customer.

"I'll be right with you," he calls over his shoulder, hoping his voice reaches the customer. He finishes counting the items in front of him before setting his clipboard aside and making his way back out to the main area of the bar.

"Can I get you something?" Grant asks cautiously when he steps out of the back room, slowly approaching the figure sitting at the bar. Their head is down on their arms against the bar top, dark brown locks spread out around them.

The figure shifts a little as a groan is released.

Grant sighs. "If you're not going to order anything, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We're going to be closing in about an hour."

He gets a muffled response that has him furrowing his brows.

"I'm sorry. I didn't understand anything that you just said."

The figure lifts their head and his breath catches in his throat at the sight before him. The young woman's dark eyes are puffy and bloodshot, smear lines on her face that he assumes is from tears running through whatever makeup she's wearing.

"I said get me your strongest drink. Straight up. And not in a glass. Just give me the whole damn bottle."

He nods his head at her request. "Right. Of course." He turns around to the shelves behind him and grabs one of the bottles of liquor. Normally he doesn't just give the bottles of liquor straight over to the customers, but there's something about this woman that has him completely straying from the norm. And it's not like there's anyone else in the bar to complain or point it out to him.

"Here," he says, setting the bottle on the wooden bar top and sliding it closer to her.

The woman looks at the label on the bottle and lets out a sigh. "Vodka. Perfect. You read my mind." She grabs holds of the bottle and pulls the cap out of it, bringing the rim to her lips and tilting her head back.

Grant just watches as this woman downs the drink in her hand. He's racking his mind, trying to think of a reason why she might be acting this way. But nothing comes to his mind.

The bottle slamming back onto the bar top pulls his head out of his thoughts.

"You…are my new hero," the woman tells him with a bit of a slur. She can't be that drunk already.

"How's that?" he asks her.

She silently gestures to the bottle before taking another long swig.

Grant nods his head in understanding. "Ah, right." He takes a deep breath and leans back against the counter behind him, crossing his arms across his chest. "So, what brings you to a bar at three am on Christmas Eve?"

"I didn't realize it was in a bartender's job description to ask personal questions," she snaps at him. A beat later she lets out a sigh. "I'm sorry. You have done absolutely nothing wrong here and I'm taking out my pain on you." She takes another swig from the bottle.

"If you don't mind me asking, but uh, why are you in pain? Does it have anything to do with why you're here at three am downing that vodka like you've been in the desert for days and finally found water?"

He curses himself immediately for asking the question as soon as it comes out of his mouth. Why does he always have to get invested in people's problems when he already has enough of his own to deal with? Especially on Christmas Eve when all he wants to do is go home and sleep? But maybe this time it won't be as bad.

"Four years. Four and a half freaking years we were together. And now he just ends things like that. Out of nowhere and completely unexpected. Christmas was supposed to be magical and now it's tainted by his stupid face and his stupid words and his stupid everything and I hate him." She chokes on a sob and brings the vodka bottle back to her lips.

Grant sighs. This is definitely not going to be any different. "I'm sure he had his reasons and none of it was your fault," he tries.

Her eyes go wide. "Excuse me? You don't even know him and you're going to side with him?"

Okay. Obviously the wrong thing to say in this situation.

"Look, I'm sorry if I said something to offend you. I really didn't mean it that way."

She sighs and slumps down in her seat. "You didn't. I'm sorry. I'm just…really emotional right now." She pulls her lips in tight for a quick moment before sputtering and covering her hand with her mouth as tears slowly start to fall from her eyes.

Grant frowns, shifting slightly on his feet. This is not at all what he signed up for when he took this job. Sure, he's had to deal with a few drunks from time to time, and some of them are criers, but he's never had to deal with something like this.

"I'm uh, I'm sorry you have to go through this," he says awkwardly.

She breathes in deeply as she wipes the tears off of her face. "Thanks. Geez, I thought I was done crying. But I guess the break up messed me up a whole lot more than I thought."

"Well it's his loss," he says, trying to appease the woman.

"You don't even know me," she retorts.

He shrugs. "Maybe not. But if you're this broken up about it then you obviously cared a lot about him. Any guy would be lucky to have someone care about him so much."

For the first time that night he sees a genuine smile cross her lips. Even if it is a tiny one.

"Well thank you." She shifts on her seat and takes a deep breath. "So, you know my pathetic reason why I'm here at three am, so now it's your turn. What has a man like you working in a bar on Christmas Eve? Nothing better to do?"

He shrugs his shoulders, pushing off the counter and stepping forward to lean against the bar top. "I've never really felt the Christmas spirit. Don't have too many good memories from it."

"Well that sucks. The last four Christmases for me were pretty great, but now I hate this time of year again. For the obvious reason. Who the hell dumps somebody right before Christmas?" She takes another long swig from the bottle.

Without saying a word, Grant reaches underneath the bar and pulls out a glass, grabbing the bottle of alcohol and pouring some into the glass. He sets the bottle back on the counter and raises his glass. "To better Christmases going forward," he says.

The woman across from him raises the nearly empty bottle of vodka and taps against the rim of his glass. "May our lives start to suck less."

They both give each other a small smile before downing their respective drinks.

"So, I feel like I should know the name of the man who let me down an entire bottle of vodka on my own and vent about how much I hate my ex."

He smiles again. "My name's Grant. And you? I feel like I should know the name of the woman I just let down an entire bottle of vodka and vent her problems to me."

She smiles back at him. "Skye."

"Nice to meet you, Skye. And hey, if you ever need to vent about anything else, I'm usually here most days or nights."

"Even tomorrow?" she asks him curiously.

He nods. "Yes, even tomorrow. And then I'm off until after the New Year."

"Wow. Do you tend to work a lot, then?"

He shrugs. "A fair amount. It's not like I have much else occupying my time."

"Mm. I know how that goes. Other than my job I don't have much else to keep me busy anymore. Well, I had a relationship, but now all I have is my job." She takes another swig from the bottle in front of her, her eyes glancing at the room around her.

"And me."

Her eyes whip back toward him. "What?"

"I know it may be pretty cliché, confiding in your bartender, but I meant what I just said, I'm here most days if you ever want to talk."

She gives him a small smile. "Thanks. I may just have to take you up on that offer."

He smiles back at her. "I'm looking forward to it."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	16. Boxes Upon Boxes

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya! The prompt I had for this one was "** _I did that annoying thing where I put loads of smaller boxes inside one big box and you're getting really mad but you don't know that the ring is in the smallest box and I can't wait to see your face_ **". It's a follow up to the previous chapter and I had fun writing it.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Can we open presents yet?"

Grant chuckles at the eagerness in his girlfriend's voice as he enters the living room of their recently acquire shared apartment to find Skye sitting eagerly at the base of the fully decorated Christmas tree, bouncing up and down in excitement.

"For someone who's never really been a fan of Christmas you're pretty eager to open presents."

"Guess you just bring it out in me," she tells him with a smile. "After many crappy Christmases I'm finally experiencing a fairly decent one."

Grant quirks a brow. "Only fairly decent?"

She shrugs. "Figured I'd wait until the holiday is over to actually rate the whole thing."

"Sounds like a solid plan," he says with a smile, leaning down to give her a quick kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too. So can we open presents yet?"

He laughs again at her eagerness and sits down next to her. He nods his head. "Yes, we can open presents now."

Skye grins. "Yes! Do you want to open yours first, or should I?"

He shrugs. "You pick."

"Okay. You open yours first." She picks up a gift box and hands it to him with a smile on her face.

Grant smiles back and takes the box from her. "I seriously thought that you'd want to open yours first," he tells her.

"Maybe so. But I feel like I'll be too distracted on my present from you to actually focus on you opening your present from me."

"Very sound logic."

"I thought it was. Now quite stalling and open your present."

"I wasn't stalling," he retorts as he begins peeling at the wrapping paper. "We were having a conversation. That's a thing that people do."

"Yeah, I know, but I really want you to open your present."

"That's what I'm doing." He turns his attention back on the gift and tears off the rest of the paper. He smiles when he sees his gift, a brand new watch. "Wow."

"Look at the back," she instructs, an eager smile on her face.

He flips it over to see an inscription on the back of the watch _'To many more 3 am conversations. –Love, Skye'._ He smiles as he looks back up at his girlfriend. "This is a great gift, Skye. Thank you."

She smiles and gives him a small shrug. "You're welcome. Now you can tell time a little bit easier when you're working since there's not exactly a clock in your view when you're behind the counter."

He leans forward to give her a kiss. "It's very thoughtful, thank you." He sets his present off to the side and then gestures to the tree. "Alright, your turn. And I'm actually kind of glad that I opened mine first."

"Is my present really that great?" she asks teasingly as she pulls a large box in front of her.

"I'm hoping you think it is," he admits. "I wasn't sure what to get you at first, but after something that happened recently, I think I found the perfect present."

"Well then I guess we should probably find out if your hunch is correct."

He takes a deep breath and nods. "Yes, that should probably be a thing that's done."

She smiles at him and then looks down at the box in front of her to tear away the wrapping paper.

Pulling open the lid of the box, she frowns when she finds another wrapped box sitting inside of it. She takes the new box out and begins tearing at the paper.

Grant watches with a small smile on his face as his girlfriend opens her present, pulling out another box.

She sets the larger of the two boxes off to the side and starts opening the next box.

"Oh this is getting ridiculous," Skye grumbles as she pulls yet another brightly wrapped box out. "Why are there so many damn boxes?"

Grant stifles a laugh behind his hand as he watches his girlfriend get more and more frustrated with each box she unwraps, only to find another, slightly smaller box inside.

"How many more boxes are there?" she asks him, pulling at the snowflake covered wrapping paper. "And why is this one so damn small?"

"I'm not sure how many are left," he tells her as he shifts his position on the floor when she isn't looking. "I forgot how many I put."

Skye sighs and finishes unwrapping the gift, pulling open the lid of the small box, expecting to find an even smaller wrapped one inside. Instead, she finds a small, black velvet box. Her eyes go wide when she sees the box, lifting it out and holding it in her lap.

"Grant? What the hell is this?"

She slowly looks up to see her boyfriend of almost a year kneeling down in front of her and, if it's even possible, her eyes get wider.

She's frozen in her spot as he gently takes the box from her and holds it in his own hand.

"Skye," he says, pulling her out of her daze. "From the moment we first met you've been this amazing addition to my life that I didn't realize I was missing. You've brought so much joy to my life and have made me view the world in a much different way. I know we haven't been together for even a year, but I love you with all my heart and never want to be away from you for too long." He takes a deep breath. "Will you marry me?"

"Are you serious right now?"

Grant chuckles nervously. "Not exactly the response I was hoping for."

"Sorry, I'm just...I wasn't expecting this. I'm surprised."

"Good surprised?" he asks hopefully.

Skye smiles at him and leans forward to connect her lips with his, kissing him slowly. "I would love to marry you," she says against his lips.

Grant smiles back and pulls away just enough to slide the engagement ring onto her finger and then he kisses her again.

"So," he says after a moment, pulling away and smiling at this girlfrie—fiancé, "is this Christmas still only a fairly decent one?"

Skye laughs quietly and shakes her head. "Definitely not. It's probably the best Christmas I've ever experienced."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	17. Double Trouble

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya! This one takes place within the Academy!AU that I started, and it's when the twins' are just babies. This one was a lot of fun to write. I love to write for these two cuties. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Grant smiles in pure awe and amazement as he watches his eight month old daughter sleep peacefully in his lap, one of her tiny hands curled tightly around his t-shirt, her little lips parted ever so slightly, her pacifier slowly slipping out.

He reaches up to readjust the pacifier before settling back against the couch, letting out a content sigh. He'll never get tired of this. Ever.

"She's asleep," he mutters quietly, his eyes closed, when he feels the presence of his wife in the room, her heat signature one that he'll always recognize immediately.

"Damn."

He looks up at her to see her holding their son in her arms, the small guy suckling on her breast, one tiny hand curled into a fist resting comfortably against her chest.

"I was gonna feed her after I finished with Adian."

"I can wake her up if you want me to," he offers quietly, not wanting to disturb the sleeping baby just yet.

She sighs and sits down next to him. "No, that's fine. Just let her sleep. She'll wake up on her own when she gets hungry again. Probably when this guy wakes back up." She gestures with her head to the baby in her lap. She lets out a breath and glances around the festively decorated living room before looking at her husband. "Can you believe it's already Christmas Eve?"

"Seems like time moved way too fast."

"And our kids are four months away from being a year old. I don't want to think about it."

"So don't."

"Kind of hard not to when I'm the one who gave birth to them."

He nods his head. "Right. It's still kind of hard to believe that we're actually here. At least, in my case. I never, in a million years, thought that I would be here where I am right now. You, Adian, and Ava are the three best things to ever happen to me."

Skye smiles and shifts carefully on the couch to lean against her husband, stretching up to give him a quick peck. "And you're the best thing to happen to us. I'm really glad you're in my life, Grant. You and the kids make life so much easier and better."

"Likewise."

* * *

"Good morning, my sweet girl," Skye says with a wide smile as she lifts her daughter out of the crib and up into her arms. "And Merry Christmas too." She presses a kiss to Ava's cheek before shifting the girl to her hip. "Your first Christmas; I can't even believe it's already here."

Ava immediately reaches for Skye's tank top, tugging quickly and repeatedly on the strap.

Skye laughs quietly. "Patience, baby girl. Mama will have breakfast for you in just a moment." She steps across the room to the other crib, smiling down at her son. He's lying contently in his back, pacifier still securely in his mouth.

"And what about you, big guy?" she says to her son. "Would you rather have daddy give you a bottle or are you more eager to get your food straight from the source like your sister is?"

Adian simply gurgles and reaches his arms into the air.

"Guess it would have made more sense to ask that if you could actually talk." Leaning toward the door, she calls out to her husband, "Grant! Can you warm up a bottle for Adian while I nurse Ava?"

"Yeah."

"Great, thanks." She looks back down at her son. "Daddy will be right here to feed you, kiddo." She gently caresses the top of his head before crossing over to one of the rocking chairs in the corner of the room.

Sitting down in the chair, she leans back and pulls down her tank top and bra, adjusting Ava as the little girl immediately latches on.

A few seconds later she looks up to see her husband entering the room with a bottle full of milk in his hand.

"Did you already warm it up?" she asks him.

"What do you think I'm doing right now?" he replies, lifting his hand just a little.

"Babe..."

"Hey, it saves time," he tells her. "And why shouldn't I use my abilities to warm up my son's bottle? It's not hurting anyone and it's not the first time I've done it either." He carefully lifts Adian out of his crib and settles the boy in his arms, lowering the bottle of warm milk toward his mouth. Adian immediately latches onto the bottle, curling closer against his father's body as he eats.

Skye sighs. "I know it does, and I'm not mad about that," she assures him.

He smiles and leans down to give her a quick kiss. "You seem a little irritated," he remarks calmly, moving to sit in the other rocking chair in the opposite corner of the room.

"I'm fine, I promise. I think I'm just trying to wrap my head around the idea that it's the kids' first Christmas." She adjusts her hold on Ava, the young girl making a quiet noise in protest at being jostled.

He nods his head. "I know what you mean. It's kind of weird that they're already so big. At least we're able to spend time with them, though," he tells her. "Some parents have to work on Christmas Day and don't get to spend as much time with their kids as they want to. We should be grateful that Coulson is letting everyone take a break from rebuilding to spend time with their respective families."

"Yeah, that was pretty nice of him to do. Also, I don't think he wanted to incur May's wrath if he didn't let me spend Christmas with my babies."

"She is very protective over the twins," he comments.

"I think it's because she never had any kids of her own and ours are the first babies in our little pseudo-family," Skye tells him. "Or it's at least that's part of it. But also, how could you not be protective over these cute faces?" She smiles down at her daughter, smoothing a hand down over the baby's head. "They're just so perfect."

"They are pretty amazing," Grant agrees. "They eat like crazy too," he says, removing the now finished bottle from his son's mouth and setting it aside.

"He gets his appetite from you," Skye remarks, glancing down to see Ava no longer eating, just staring up at her with her big, beautiful brown eyes. "All done, Ava-loo?" She readjusts her clothes as she lifts Ava up over her shoulder to burp her. "Almost time to really get the festivities started," she says to her husband as she gently pats her daughter on the back.

"Don't we get to eat too?" he asks his wife.

She rolls her eyes. "Of course we get to eat too. Obviously. We're not just going to go the whole day without eating."

He holds one hand up in defense. "I was just making sure." He drops his hand and lets a tiny smile crawl over his lips at the sight of his wife holding their daughter in her arms. "I love you."

She looks over at him and smiles. "I love you too, you dork."

.

.

.

"Ava, sweetie, no. We're opening presents right now, not trying to rip Max's tail off his body." She leans down and lifts her daughter into her arms, affectionately rubbing the German Sheppard's head. "Sorry, boy. But thanks for always being such a good sport."

"Is she messing with the dog again?" Grant asks as he finishes setting up his wife's tablet on the side table to record the kids opening up their presents.

Skye sighs. "Yeah. You know, for being so small, she's such a trouble maker."

"Like mother like daughter, right?" he teases.

Skye narrows her eyes playfully at her husband. "You're so lucky that you're a literal heater when we sleep or you'd be on the couch tonight."

Grant chuckles. "Whatever you say, Skye."

"I'm serious, babe. You're a giant heater and the kids always like cuddling up with you more than me because you give off more heat than I do."

"Maybe so, but they still have a very special connection with you because you carried them for nine months."

"Yeah, I know." She takes a deep breath. "Okay, enough of me moping around. It's time to open presents." She looks at her twins and smiles wide. "Are you guys ready to open your presents? Mommy and daddy got you some really fun stuff."

She sits down on the carpeted floor, Adian immediately crawling to sit down in her lap while Ava makes a beeline for the gifts, having given up on pulling on Max's tail.

Skye manages to wrangle Ava away from the pile of presents, Adian becoming occupied with tugging on the necklace she wears around her neck.

Grant laughs quietly as he watches his wife struggle with both children, trying to keep them both settled so that they can open presents.

"Are you just going to sit up there amused, or are you going to get down here and help me?" Skye asks her husband as she pulls Ava down from using her like a jungle gym while Adian laughs around a mouthful of metal.

Grant smiles and slides down off of the couch, sitting across from his wife and pulling his daughter into his lap, dragging her through the air as he makes loud noises like an airplane, causing the little girl to squeal in delight.

Skye laughs as she holds Adian in her lap with one arm, a wide smile on her face as she leans over to pepper his tiny face with kisses.

Neither of them pay much attention to the tablet on the end table recording the sweet family moment as they goof around and open presents, more than happy to just be in the moment with one another.

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	18. Burn Baby Burn

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya. This one's pretty short, but it's still pretty funny, I think. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The shrill beeping of the fire alarm draws Grant's attention away from the book open in front of him. His brows furrowed in confusion, he closes his book and sets it off to the side before standing from his chair and making his way out into the other areas of the apartment.

Quickening his steps just a bit more, he pauses when he steps just inside the living room to find his girlfriend frantically flapping a dish cloth at the large tree in the corner of the room, the majority of it currently ablaze.

"Skye?"

His girlfriend whips around toward him with wide eyes. "Grant, hey."

"What the hell is going on? Why are the fire alarms beeping?"

"I think it's pretty obvious," she says with a small, nervous laugh. "Our tree is on fire."

"Yes, I can see that."

"So then why did you ask?"

He gives her a pointed look as he moves into the room and crosses to the tree. He squints his eyes a little and then they go wide again a few seconds later.

"The candles did this?!" He screeches, turning to look at his girlfriend.

Skye gives him a sheepish smile. "Sorry?"

Grant groans. "I knew this was a bad idea. But you _insisted_ that we used real candles to light the tree this year. But now the entire thing is on fire, Skye. Our tree is on fire! This is why I don't listen to your ideas."

"Hey, it's not my fault that you're more agreeable right after sex than you are at any other time of day."

"Yes! It is your fault."

Skye shrugs. "Eh."

Grant closes his eyes and lets out a deep sigh. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you."

Skye smiles and slowly walks up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her chin against his chest. "You're going to stay with me forever because your madly in love with and can't imagine your life without me in it."

Grant opens his eyes and looks at her, wrapping his own arms around her waist. "I mean, I guess so."

Skye smiles wider and rises onto her toes to press her lips to his. "I love you."

"I love you too. But we should probably take care of the fire."

"Crap."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	19. That's Not How Snow Works

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya! This one was inspired by that little moment that was briefly touched upon in** _All the Songs Make Sense_ **, about a particular Christmas when Grant and Skye were younger. You don't need to go read that to read this, as this takes place before that whole story.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"This sucks."

"What does?" Grant asks, looking up from the open notebook in front of him after jotting a few more words down onto the page and crossing out some others.

"Being bored."

"Why does that suck?"

"Because it does," Skye tells him. "You know I hate being bored."

"Yes I do. I've known you since practically forever; I know how bored you can get."

"Good. So then you know I'm going to keep bugging you until you figure out a way for us to not be so bored anymore."

He furrows his brows. "Why'd you include me in that statement?"

"Because I know you, Grant, and you're bored too. I'm pretty sure I've heard you say it a few times already this week."

He sighs. "Okay. So maybe I'm bored too. Just not as bored as you are."

"Nobody's as bored as me," she tells him, flipping some hair over her shoulder.

Grant laughs quietly. "Yes, I suppose you're right there."

It's silent for a few moments as they sit together on her bed her legs resting casually in his lap.

"You know, I think I have an idea," Grant says eventually, closing his notebook and setting it aside as he shifts his body to face his best friend, reaching out to grab her hands and pull her into a seated position.

"You do?" Skye asks.

He nods. "Yeah."

"Well don't leave me hanging, what is it?"

"Snow."

Skye furrows her brows. "Snow?"

Grant smiles and nods. "Mm-hmm."

"In case you haven't noticed, genius, there's no snow here because we live in LA."

"Yeah, obviously. But I meant that we'll make our own snow."

Skye tilts her head as she watches him. "I'm confused."

Grant shifts in his spot so he's sitting up more and looking at her. "We get a wood chipper, fill it with ice, turn it on, instant snow."

Skye shakes her head. "You're crazy, Grant. That's never going to work."

"How will you know if you never try, Princess?" he retorts.

Skye thinks for a minute and then huffs. "Fine. But where in the actual hell are we going to find a wood chipper?"

Grant shrugs. "From a neighbor. I think Old Man Johnson has one he might let us borrow."

"Okay, but do we really want to go ask him if we can borrow his wood chipper? He kind of creeps me out."

"How does he creep you out?"

"I don't know. He just does."

Grant sighs. "Fine. If it'll make you feel better, I'll go ask him about the wood chipper, you don't have to come with."

Skye beams. "See, this is why you're the best boyfriend ever."

Grant rolls his eyes as he tosses her feet out of his lap, standing from the bed. "Yeah, yeah."

.

.

.

"Why did you think that this was a good idea?" Skye shouts at her boyfriend as they scramble to try and turn off the wood chipper while simultaneously avoiding being pummeled by the small chunks of ice flying out of it.

"I never said it was a good idea," Grant retorts. "Just that it was an idea."

"Well it was a really terrible idea."

"Clearly. I don't need you to tell me that."

"Clearly you do."

Before either of them can say anything else, the wood chipper shuts off, ice chunks no longer flying through the air.

"Maybe it ran out of power," Grant suggests, eyeing the wood chipper and cautiously stepping toward the large machine.

"We plugged it in," Skye replies. "I don't think it can run out of power if it's plugged in."

"Well obviously something happened," Grant tells her as he begins inspecting the machine.

"Right, so, who's bloody idea was it to put ice in a wood chipper?"

Both teens turn their heads to see Kebo standing a few feet away from them, the power cord for the wood chipper hanging in one hand.

"Kebo," Skye says. "What are you doing here?"

"I had a very strong feeling one of you two would be doing something stupid today because I know how easily bored you become, so I came by to see what's going on. Good thing I did too, or you might have taken someone's eye out with this stunt. So, again, who's idea was this?"

"Grant's."

Grant turns to her with wide eyes. "Seriously?"

She shrugs. "What? It was." She turns to Kebo. "Also, you're one to talk. You're the King of stupid ideas."

"Oi, I resent that."

Skye just smiles at him and then looks at Grant. "Think Kebo will clean it up for us if we beg since everyone else that was here bolted?"

Grant shrugs. "Maybe we can trick him into doing it somehow."

"You two do realize that I'm still standing here, right?"

Grant and Skye just laugh before easily roping Kebo into helping them clean up their mess, stealing a few not-so-innocent kisses as they do.

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	20. Buried Deep

**Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya! Sorry it's being posted so late in the day. I was busy pretty much all morning and then I had work tonight and I didn't get off until about 10:30 or so. But I'm here now. :)**

 **This one's pretty short, but it's still pretty fun. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Ooh, you know what would be a fun thing to do right now?"

"What?"

"Bury you in the snow."

"What? How on earth is that going to be fun?"

"It'd be fun for me."

"No."

"Please?"

"Why?"

"Because I think it'd be funny to bury you in the snow and then scare people when they walk past."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I do."

"…"

"Pleeease?"

"Fine. But just for a few minutes, okay?"

"Yes! You're the best, babe."

"So you keep telling me."

.

.

.

"Oh my goodness. This was such a good idea. We've terrified so many people today."

"You know, sometimes I really worry about you."

"But you still love me anyways."

"Yes, I suppose that I do."

"Ooh, you know what would be really good right now?"

"Getting me out of this snow?"

"Hot chocolate."

"That does sound good."

"I'm gonna go make some."

"Sounds like a pla—wait, why did you just kiss my forehead? Skye? Where are you going? Hey, you can't just leave me here!"

"I love you too, I'll be right back!"

"What?!"

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	21. Of Pancakes and Christmas Music

**Hey babes! Back again with another one for ya. This one's pretty short as well, but I hope you enjoy it. The prompt for this one came from a friend of mine and it was "** _Imagine your otp cooking together with cheesy Christmas music playing. Person A wraps their arms around Person B, they're swaying to the music, making out. In the background the food is burning on the stove. **"**_

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"What are you doing up already?"

Skye looks over her shoulder to see her boyfriend of five years entering the kitchen, his hair stuck up in all directions, his eyes still glazed over with sleep. He lets out a yawn as he approaches her.

"Couldn't sleep," she tells him, glancing back at the stove to flip one of the pancakes. "Too excited about the holiday."

"It's only December 1st."

"And?"

He chuckles quietly. "Nothing. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that you're so excited for Christmas. And is that Christmas music I hear coming through the radio?" he asks.

"Obviously," she replies.

"Alright, well as long as you're happy." He steps up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss to her exposed shoulder. "Mm...I love the smell of pancakes."

"Good. They should be ready soon."

"Dance with me first," he says.

"Grant..."

"Come on, Skye. This music is super cheesy and perfect for dancing to. Well, more along the lines of swaying, but you get my point."

"Will it shut you up?" she asks with a teasing tone to her voice.

He nods against her skin. "Mm-hmm."

She sighs and sets down her spatula, turning around in his arms and looping her own up around his neck.

Grant smiles and presses a quick kiss to her lips before slowly moving them from side to side. "See? Isn't this romantic?"

Skye laughs quietly. "You're a dork, you know that?"

"Yet you still love me."

"That's debatable on some days."

Grant just smiles and leans forward to give her another kiss, making her smile in return as she kisses him back, deepening the kiss just a little.

Pulling apart from the kiss, Grant rests his forehead against Skye's, his eyes closed as he hums along to the music coming through the radio speaker, continuing to sway their bodies from side to side.

"Grant," Skye speaks up after a quiet minute.

"Hmm?"

"I think the pancakes are burning."

"Let them."

Skye sighs and steps closer to Grant, closing her eyes as she leans against him and lets the music from the radio envelope her.

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	22. Organizing and Strategizing Christmas

**Hey babes! Back again with a new for ya. I wanted to get this one up earlier, but it wasn't exactly where I wanted it yet, and I had work this morning and then had to finish cleaning my house when I got home cause my sister and brother-in-law are coming into town tonight. So yeah. But I've got some downtime and now I'm updating.**

 **This particular story takes place within the Housewives!AU world that I created with a friend over on Tumblr. There's a bunch of headcanons we came up with for this universe, so if you're ever curious, you can go search for 'Housewives!AU' on my tumblr: skyeward-otp.**

 **This was pretty fun to write, so I hope you all have fun reading it too. I'm not too happy with the title, but it's the best I could think of. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Alright, everybody group up," Skye instructs immediately once she steps down out of the SUV and glances at the group of kids before her, a game plan already forming in her head. The older kids are talking amongst themselves while the younger ones look around them with wide eyes at the rows upon rows of Christmas trees ready to be picked through. "Alex, you're with Nate," she tells two of her boys. "Twins, you two can stick together. Connor, CJ, and Jenny, you three are together. Tray, you're in charge of Lauren and Justin."

"Do I have to be?" Tray asks, already making his way toward the youngest set of twins.

"Tray, do not argue with me right now."

"I wasn't gonna," he says with a small shrug. "I was just asking if I had to be with Lauren and Justin."

She nods her head at him. "Yes, you have to. You're the oldest of the group, they're the youngest. And they love you. So please do as I ask."

"Okay, I was already going to." He grabs hold of each twins' hand and gives his mom a small smile almost identical to the one her husband sometimes gives her.

Skye sighs at her eleven year old son's antics before turning back to the SUV and unstrapping her youngest daughter from her car seat and lifting her into her arms, being sure to grab her daughter's favorite stuffed animal in hopes of preventing any meltdowns while they're in public. "Come on, sweet girl." She closes the door and makes sure the car is locked before looking at the kids in front of her, all of them grouped up how she instructed.

"Are we all ready to go?"

Skye looks over her shoulder to see her husband approaching the group, a smile on his face as he glances around at the children and then settles on her. "Hey."

"Hi. Is everyone ready?"

"I think so." She takes a deep breath. "Remind me again why we thought that taking all the kids Christmas tree shopping at the same time would be a good idea."

"Because it's easier this way."

Skye quirks a brow at her husband. "Christmas tree shopping with twelve kids to wrangle is easier?"

"Okay, so maybe not exactly easier, but at least we don't have to worry about Hunter."

Skye sighs. "I swear, that man. He acts more like a child than his own son does. Especially when we're all out in public together."

"It's because he knows it gets a rise out of you, Bobbi, and Jemma," Grant tells his wife. "That's why he does it."

"Yeah, well, he's lucky that Bobbi's pregnant again and needs him for just about everything."

"Mama! Are we gonna go find a tree now?!"

Skye looks over to the large group of kids waiting to go. "Yeah, CJ, we're gonna go get our trees now."

"Thank goodness," Jemma speaks up, approaching Skye with her youngest child held securely in her arms. "The kids are getting a bit antsy and Fitz can only hold the little ones off for so long."

"Hence why we're going now," Skye tells her best friend. She turns her attention to the group. "Okay, listen up, everybody. We're all going together so no one gets lost. We'll go row by row, looking at all the trees, but you're okay to walk a little bit ahead us grown ups if you stay with your buddy. Got it?" All the kids nod. "Good. Now march."

.

.

.

"Damn, why are all of these trees so tall?" Skye questions as she and Jemma make their way through another long row of Christmas trees, keeping their eyes expertly trained on their roaming kids ahead of them while also looking at trees that interest them along the way.

"The trees aren't tall, mom," Tray calls from a few feet ahead, gripping tightly to Lauren and Justin, keeping them from running off ahead of him. "You're just really short."

Skye narrows her eyes at her son. "Tray Cameron, you better watch your mouth."

Tray laughs quietly. "Sorry, mom. But you know it's true. You too, Auntie Jemma."

Jemma gasps and nearly loses her grip on her son while Skye snorts with laughter, adjusting her hold on her daughter.

"Momma! Tees!"

Skye turns her attention on her daughter, seeing the little girl pointing at all the Christmas trees around them in varying shapes and sizes, excitement in her big, brown eyes. "Yeah, baby, those are trees. And we're gonna find the biggest one we can find and then watch daddy carry it back to the car with his super big muscles so we can take it home."

"Why am I automatically designated as the Christmas tree carrier?" Grant asks as he steps up behind his wife, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing a kiss to her temple.

"Daddy!"

Grant smiles wide when he sees his daughter, removing himself from Skye and taking his daughter into his arms, tossing her up into the air once before settling her on his hip, grabbing her stuffed animal from his wife and setting it between their bodies. "Hey, Marie. How are you, sweetheart?"

She giggles. "Good. Daddy, tee!"

Grant laughs quietly and nods. "I know. We're here with your aunt and uncle and all your cousins to get Christmas trees to put in each of our houses. And then we're going to decorate our tree together with your brothers, put all the lights and ornaments on it."

"Tay!" the little girl shouts.

Grant nods. "Yeah, Tray's going to help us put decorations on it. And Alex, and CJ, and Nate."

"And Connor."

"What?"

"You forgot Connor," Skye tells her husband.

He blinks once. "No I didn't."

"Yes you did. How could you forget one of your children?"

"You've forgotten them too, before."

"Yes, but each of those times I was pregnant with one of them which means my brain was all weird. I have an excuse. What's yours?"

"Um, there's a lot of them?"

"There's only six."

"And five of them are boys who are all really close in age. And six is still a lot of kids in some people's eyes."

"Mom! Dad! I think we found one!"

"Speaking of the child you forgot," Skye says to her husband, gently plucking their daughter out of his arms and walking off with Jemma further down the aisle toward their seven year old son.

"Face it, Grant," Fitz speaks up, stepping up beside his friend and clapping him on the back, making Grant flinch just a little. "You're never going to win an argument with her."

Grant sighs. "Yes, Fitz, I know that. I've been married to her for just over a decade."

"Good, that's good that you're aware. It'd be a shame if you didn't know and kept arguing with her about stuff." He takes a deep breath as the two men start walking toward where their kids and wives are, taking their time to linger a bit behind. "So, what are you two bringing to the party next weekend?"

"What we usually bring, probably," Grant replies.

Fitz smiles wide at the thought. "Ooh, yeah. Skye's famous brownies. And cookies. And fudge. I don't understand how you're still so fit with how much Skye bakes and how much of her baked goods you eat."

"It's a wonder to me too, Fitz. I keep telling her to stop baking so much because I can't help but eat it every time she makes something when it's fresh out of the oven and I have to work out even more to keep the weight off. But she refuses. Tells me that it's her duty to keep the neighbor kids satisfied with the sugary treats their own parents won't let them have."

Fitz furrows his brows. "Doesn't she let your kids eat tons of it too, though?"

Grant shrugs. "I stopped trying to understand her logic on most things years ago."

Fitz nods. "Right, good plan."

"Yeah. Is Jemma insisting on bringing something healthy to the party again?"

Fitz sighs. "Unfortunately, yes. And, as in years prior, we'll probably be taking most of it home with us again. As where you and Skye always take home empty dishes with promises of even more treats the following year."

Grant laughs quietly. "What can I say? People love junk food at the holidays."

"And all year round," Fitz remarks.

"That they do, my friend." He lets out a breath as he and Fitz approach their families, a frown setting in on his face when he sees the young sales boy talking to his wife, his eyes clearly fixated on her breasts. "Babe," he speaks up when they get close enough, stepping up beside her and wrapping his arm around her waist, pressing a lingering kiss to her cheek.

She looks up at him and smiles. "Hey. I think we found the perfect tree. Three identical trees, to be exact. The kids all insisted that each family has a matching tree this year."

"That's great." He looks over at the sales boy still ogling his wife and holds a hand out. "Grant Ward," he says.

"Uh, Zack," the boy replies, hesitantly reaching out to take Grant's hand.

"Nice to meet you, Zack," Grant says with a tight smile, squeezing Zack's hand just a little tighter than necessary. "We're going to get the three trees that my wife and kids found."

"Yeah, sure. Uh, just…just let me go ring those up for you. I'll be right back."

"That would great, thank you." He releases the boy's hand and watches as he walks away, rubbing his hand with his face twisted up in pain.

"Was that really necessary?" his wife asks him.

"Of course it was," he insists, turning to look at her. "The kid wasn't exactly being subtle, Skye. That was my way of teaching him a little lesson."

Skye snorts. "Right, okay." She takes a deep breath. "So, after we get these trees back to the house, are we going to decorate the tree or bake cookies first?"

"We should probably decorate first," he tells her. "That way it's done and out of the way and the kids won't bug us about it anymore."

Skye nods. "Good plan. The kids need to take the dogs for a walk when we get home, though. I'll mix up the sugar cookie dough while they're out so that once we all finish decorating the tree we can make cookies tonight. Then we can watch a couple of Christmas movies after dinner. At least, as many as we can get through before they all inevitably fall asleep on the living room floor."

Grant smiles and leans down to kiss her lips. "Sounds like the perfect plan to me."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	23. A Decent Christmas After All

**Hey babes! Back with a new one for ya! Only two more left in this little collection we've got going on here. Who's excited? But also a little sad? I am. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Hey, mind if I sit here?" Grant asks the petite brunette sitting in one of the auditorium seats near the back as he approaches her, one strap of his backpack hanging on his shoulder, the other shoved into the front pocket of his jeans.

The girl shrugs. "I guess."

"Thanks." He sits down in the seat next to her, letting out a breath as he leans back in the chair, dropping his backpack at his feet. "So, I don't think I've seen you around here before. What brings you by?"

"Nuns."

His brows shoot up. "Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Wow."

She nods slowly. "Mm-hmm. It's their last ditch attempt to make me feel like I'm a part of something important." She lets out a frustrated groan and throws her head back. "I hate Christmas with such a fiery passion."

He furrows his brows. "You do?"

"Yep."

"So do I."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Wow." She lets out a huffed laugh. "All the lavish parties and expensive gifts, must be nice. Can't understand why a rich kid would hate Christmas."

"Not all rich kids actually like being rich," he informs her. "I sure as hell don't."

"You don't?"

He shakes his head. "Nope. I hate being rich. _Especially_ during Christmas."

"Oh. I'm sorry for just assuming."

"It's fine," he assures her.

"You know why I'm here, but you haven't told me why you're here yet."

He breathes in deeply. "I'm only here to get away from my family. Odds are they won't even know that I'm gone."

She raises a brow. "You can't be serious."

He nods. "Oh but I am. They suck. Sometimes I wish I didn't have a family."

"Be careful what you wish for, rich boy. Being an orphan isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'd rather have a rich and crappy family than no family at all."

"You're an orphan?"

"All my life. It's all I've known so it's really not as bad as people think it is. Worst time of year to be an orphan is at Christmas, though. Nobody wants to adopt a kid at Christmas. Especially not a teenager."

"I'm sure you'll find a family soon."

"Thanks for the optimism, rich boy, but I'm not really holding my breath about it. I gave up hope a long time ago that someone would want me."

"Then I guess I'll have to have hope for the both of us."

"And what exactly are you hoping for?" she asks him.

"That I'll find an escape from my family. I just want to get away. And maybe one day we'll both find what we need."

"Yeah, maybe." She takes a deep breath. "So, rich boy, what's your name?"

"Grant. Grant Ward. And you?"

"Skye."

"Last name?"

She pulls her lips in tight and points at herself with her thumbs. "Orphan since birth, remember? Don't know who my family is."

He nods. "Right."

Her brows furrow together as she watches him. "Wait, are you related to Senator Ward?"

He pulls his lips tight much like she did moments before and nods his head reluctantly. "Yeah, he's my father. But not a very good one."

"Sorry."

"It's fine. It's nothing I'm not used to."

"Still. It must suck."

"It does. But I have ways that I can—"

"Mr. Ward, Miss Poots, is there something more important that you find the need to talk about right now?"

"No, sir," he replies immediately. "I apologize. It won't happen again."

"Thank you."

He nods politely at the teacher before looking at Skye to see her sitting wide-eyed in her seat, her lips pursed as she stares straight ahead.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"Nothing."

"Really? Because you seemed fine a second ago, and now you seem kinda off. Wait, did Mr. Harris call you Miss Poots? Why did he call you Miss Poots?"

"Because that's my name."

His eyes go wide. "What?"

"Technically, and unfortunately, my legal name is Mary Sue Poots. It's what the nuns named me when I arrived at the orphanage. But I hate that name."

"So you go by Skye."

"When I can. It's better than the name I was given." She sits up straight and narrows her eyes at him. "And if you ever call me by that name, I won't hesitate to hurt you."

He smiles amusingly. "You don't look like you could hurt a fly."

"Don't underestimate me, rich boy."

"Sorry. And why do you have to call me rich boy?"

She shrugs as she leans back in her seat. "Don't know."

"Can you stop?"

She shakes her head. "Nope."

He sighs. "Fine. I guess I can learn to be okay with it since we're going to be seeing a lot of each other for this play."

"A stupid play that I don't even want to do," she tells him. "I'm pretty much here against my will. I don't even go to this school."

"Must be why I didn't recognize you."

"You can't possibly know what every student in this school looks like. And don't you dare make a comment about how beautiful I am because I will punch you if you do."

He chuckles quietly and holds his hands up. "I promise I won't. And you're right, I don't know what every student in this school looks like. But I'm assuming you're around my age, since you're here right now for this stupid play that's probably going to be a train wreck since we only have a few weeks to do everything. If we go with the assumption that you're my age, then that means we'd be in some of the same classes, so I would have seen you once or twice."

"Ah. Very good deductive skills there, rich boy. Somebody want to be a detective when they're older?"

He shakes his head. "No. I want to be a history teacher."

"Well good luck with that."

"Thanks. What about you? What do you want to do?"

She shrugs. "Survive."

He frowns and sinks down into his chair.

Skye sighs and shifts in her seat. "I'm sorry for bringing the mood back down. I just really hate being at St. Agnes and I don't plan on being there for too much longer."

"What?"

"I'm running away. Soon. Probably after the holidays even though I could totally run away now and no one would even notice."

"You can't run away," he tells her with a frown at the thought of not getting to see her more. "You're still a teenager; you won't survive on your own out there."

"Anything is better than being in that orphanage. But I promise you I'll be fine, rich boy. I can take care of myself." She takes a deep breath and sits up in their seat. "Now come on, I think Mr. Harris just assigned parts since everyone is out of their seats and moving to the stage. We should probably figure out what parts we are."

Grant nods his head. "Yeah, we should probably do that." He stands from his seat and follows her down the aisle way and toward the front of the auditorium where the cast list is lying on the front of the stage.

They wait behind the other students for a few moments, everyone else eager to see what part they're going to be playing.

Once they make it to the front of the stage, he watches as Skye scans over the cast list and then turns to him with a small smile on her face.

"Well, rich boy, looks like we're going to be spending a whole lot more time together than we originally thought. You and I have been cast as the two leads in this ridiculous Christmas play."

He blinks a few times. "Wow. Okay. Um, at least you're not stuck with one of the other guys here as your love interest. Most of them are your stereotypical stuck up rich jerk."

"Guess I got lucky, then, in the rich kid department."

Grant gives her a small smile. "Yeah, I guess you did."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	24. Beautiful Christmas

**Hey babes! Back again with the second to last one for ya. This one takes place the December after the epilogue happens, after they've decided to make music together and get engaged.**

 **It's a pretty good one, I think. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"This is so awesome," Jessica says as she steps through the doors of the large room decorated for the upcoming holiday.

A long table of refreshments is set up to one side of the room, draped in a red and green checkered table cloth with silver confetti scattered across it. At the front of the room sits a decent sized stage, sparkly snowflakes strung up all around it with fake snow littering the front edge.

All around the room there are more sparkly snowflakes tacked to the walls and hanging from the ceiling, fake snow lining where the wall meets the floor.

"It's like Christmas in here."

"I think that was the point, sweetie," Skye speaks up as she and Grant approach their daughter, their hands clasped together tightly. "They wanted to make it into a Winter Wonderland for everybody. Very fitting for tonight, if you ask me."

"It's especially nice since it doesn't actually snow in LA," Grant pipes in.

"Yeah, that's probably the one thing I miss about Massachusetts. The snow during the winter was amazing."

"It was pretty cool to experience actual snow," Grant admits. "But I have to say that I'm a bit more partial to LA Christmases."

Skye rolls her eyes. "That's because you grew up here, you dork."

Grant nods his head. "That is true. But also because almost all the Christmases I spent in LA were with you. And you're my favorite thing in the entire world."

Skye smiles up at him and gives him a slow kiss. "You're my favorite thing too."

"You guys are so gross."

Grant and Skye just laugh as they pull apart from their kiss.

"Oi, who's that pretty girl I see over there?"

Jessica gasps and turns around, a wide smile curling onto her lips when she sees the man approaching. "Uncle Kebo!" She races toward him, wrapping him in a tight hug.

Kebo smiles and hugs her back. "How are you, sweetheart?"

"Good. Mom and dad are being gross, though."

"Well that's not much of a surprise there," he remarks. "Even in high school they were gross together. Always kissing and touching each other in the hallway. I'm sure I vomited a few times."

"You did not," Grant retorts.

"Came pretty close to it a couple of times right after you two started dating. I swear I couldn't go anywhere with you two without feeling nauseous at how often you sucked face."

Grant rolls his eyes at his best friend. "And you're still being overly dramatic. We weren't that bad."

"We kind of were, babe," Skye tells him with a sheepish smile. "I'm pretty sure we've had this discussion before. However, you were by far the worst, just so you're aware. Now come on, we have to go get ready," she says quickly without giving him a chance to respond to her earlier comment.

He sighs. "Yeah, you're right. Jess, you gonna be good here with Uncle Kebo?"

Jessica nods. "Yeah, I'll be okay."

"I promise to take very good care of the rugrat," Kebo says, resting one hand on Jessica's shoulder.

"See, that concerns me," Grant remarks in a joking manner.

"You know you love me," Kebo calls after his friend's retreating back. He looks down at Jessica. "He'd be so lost without me."

Jessica laughs quietly. "I'm sure he would. Can we go find something to drink? I'm thirsty."

"Yeah, sure, right. Let's go do that. It's best to stay hydrated."

Jessica just shakes her head at her uncle in amusement and makes her way over the refreshment table, Kebo trailing behind her.

.

.

.

"Merry Christmas, all you wonderful people of Los Angeles!"

Everyone in the room cheers as the man on stage speaks into his microphone.

"We've got a very special treat for you all tonight. One of your favorite new musical duos, Grant and Skye, has agreed to perform a little for you guys. So please put your hands together for the amazing Grant and Skye."

Grant and Skye make their way out onto the stage, smiling and waving at the crowd gathered in front of the stage. Kebo walks out behind them and positions himself at the DJ-esque set up at the back of the stage.

"Hey everybody," Skye says with a wide smile as she stops in front of one of the microphones set up center stage. "We're so excited to perform a few songs for you guys tonight."

"This first song we're going to perform for you is an original that we started writing last Christmas but just finished it up not too long ago and released it, called _Beautiful Christmas,"_ Grant tells the crowd _. "_ It's a little bit different than some of the stuff we've done before in the music part of it, so helping us out a little is our very good friend Kebo. Say hi to the people, Kebo." He glances over at his shoulder at his best friend.

From behind the table, Kebo leans to the side and waves quickly to the crowd before turning his attention back to the devices in front of him.

Grant and Skye both laugh, turning their attention back to the crowd in front of them.

"Alright," Grant says. "Again, we hope you enjoy the song. So here goes."

A few seconds later, the sound of jingle bells accompanied with a hard beat and clapping fills the speakers in the room.

Grant and Skye smile, sharing a quick glance at each other before stepping closer to their microphones, Grant opening his mouth to speak first.

 **Let's go!  
** _Merry Christmas everybody!_

 **Put down video games,  
** **Pick up some candy canes  
** **And hang a wreath on your door  
** _Hey  
_ _Give back to those who need  
_ _Bring peace and_ _ **harmony  
**_ _Cause that's what Christmas is for_

 **And this Christmas, this Christmas  
** **We'll celebrate a wonderful year  
** _Ohh this Christmas_ **(it's Christmas)  
** _This Christmas_ **(it's Christmas)  
** _We'll decorate the halls with love and cheer_

Both of their smiles grow wider as they sing, noticing a few of the people in the crowd clapping along to the beat.

 _ **We can make a beautiful Christmas  
**_ _ **We can make the world shine bright  
**_ _ **As long as friends and family are with us  
**_ _ **Every star will shine tonight  
**_

 _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make a_ _ **beautiful Christmas**_

 **Let's party in the snow  
** **Under the mistletoe  
** **Girl I've been waiting all year  
** _(All year)_ **Hey…  
** _Rudolph can take a break  
_ _Frosty can melt away  
_ _As long as I got you here_

Skye looks over at her fiancé and gives him a small wink. He smiles back at her.

 **And this Christmas** _(it's Christmas)  
_ **This Christmas** _(it's Christmas)  
_ **We'll celebrate a wonderful year  
** _Ohh this Christmas_ **(it's Christmas)  
** _This Christmas_ **(it's Christmas)  
** _We'll decorate the halls with love and cheer_

They both remove their mics from their respective stands and walk toward either side of the stage, hyping the crowd up even further.

 _ **We can make a beautiful Christmas  
**_ _ **We can make the world shine bright  
**_ _ **As long as friends and family are with us  
**_ _ **Every star will shine tonight  
**_

 _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make a_ _ **beautiful Christmas**_

Grant moves from his side of the stage over to where Skye is, standing behind her as she sings her line, wrapping his arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her cheek. When it comes time to sing his line, he leans forward over her shoulder, singing into her microphone, despite having one of his own.

 _Happy holiday, spread the love on Christmas day  
_ **Singing happy holiday, we can make a beautiful Christmas  
** _Happy holiday, spread the love on Christmas day  
_ **Singing happy holiday, we can make a beautiful Christmas  
** _(It's so beautiful)_

Grant pulls away slightly from Skye, keeping one arm wrapped loosely around her waist, but singing into his own mic again.

 **We can make a beautiful Christmas  
** **We can make the world shine bright  
** _ **As long as friends and family are with us  
**_ _ **Every star will shine tonight  
**_

 _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make it beautiful  
_ **It's Christmas  
** _We can make a_ _ **beautiful Christmas  
**_ **We can make a beautiful Christmas  
** _We can make a beautiful Christmas_

 _ **Happy holiday, spread the love on Christmas day  
**_ _ **Singing happy holiday, we can make a beautiful Christmas**_

The music ends and the crowd starts clapping and cheering, making Grant and Skye smile even wider. She leans into his side and he drops a kiss to the top of her head.

"Woo!" Jessica cheers from the crowd. "Go mom and dad! Yeah!"

Grant and Skye continue to smile out at the crowd.

"Before we continue tonight's show," Grant says into his mic, "my lovely fiancée and I want to thank you all for coming here tonight to help us all celebrate this amazing holiday that's all about family and spending time together. Also, the support you guys have shown to us in the last few months as we've released a few singles has been absolutely amazing. You guys truly are the best."

"Now that that's done with," Skye speaks up, "let's continue this party with a few more classics that you guys probably know by heart so feel free to sing along with us."

The crowd cheers again as a guitar is brought out to Grant, the same guitar he's had for years, that he always plays.

He straps it around his body and positions his fingers on the frets. He smiles up at the love of his life before turning to the crowd, plucking the strings a few times, and then opening his mouth to sing.

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Yes, the song is by Big Time Rush, but I love the song and it works for the most part.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


	25. Miracle for Christmas

**Hey babes! Back again with the FINAL installment of _25 Days of Skyeward._ I figured that this would be a pretty good one to end on for this little collection we've got here. :)**

 **I hope you've all had a good holiday with your respective families, and if you don't celebrate any holidays, then I hope you've just had a good month in general. :) Thank you all so much for reading these stories, your love and support has been great.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"She's been like this for almost a week."

"Can you really blame her?"

"No, I guess not."

"Auntie Jemma, why is mommy still sleeping? It's almost dinner time."

Jemma looks down at the four-year-old brunette in front of her and sighs heavily. She reaches down to lift the young girl into her arms and holds her tightly, trying her best to come up with an explanation that will satisfy the child. "Your mum isn't sleeping, sweetheart. She's still in bed because she's very sad about your dad."

The young girl tilts her head and furrows her brows. "Because he's away fighting lots of bad guys?"

Jemma nods and swallows. "Yes. Because he's away fighting a lot of bad guys."

"But daddy's a good guy," Jessica states. "So why is mommy sad?"

"She's sad because she can't see him while he's away. Your mummy loves your daddy so much that it makes her really sad when she can't see him or talk to him for a really long time."

"Oh."

"Jessica?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you go take Uncle Fitz into the living room and show him how tall of a tower you can build with your blocks?"

Jessica smiles wide. "Okay." She slides down out of Jemma's arms and grabs hold of Fitz's hand, leading the older man into the living room as she starts talking about anything and everything that comes to her imaginative mind.

Letting out another deep sigh, Jemma watches the scene for a moment before turning and making her way into the master bedroom. She frowns immediately at the sight of Skye curled up underneath of the covers, quiet sniffling coming from beneath the heavy blanket.

She takes a small step into the room. "This is getting ridiculous."

There's no response.

"Skye, I'm serious here. I know you're hurting, and I completely understand, but you have to—"

"You don't."

"What?"

"You don't understand," Skye repeats, still buried underneath the blankets.

"Then help me understand," she says softly.

There's movement from beneath the covers and then Skye emerges, her hair a tangled mess and tear tracks stained to her cheeks. "My husband is gone, Jemma."

"He's only missing," Jemma replies.

"Missing in action is as good as dead, and you know that. More than likely I'll never get to see him again and grow old together. Jessica will never really get to know her dad, he'll be just a faded memory for her, an idea." Her voice cracks, "He's gone, Jemma. And he's not coming back."

Jemma frowns and quickly moves further into the room, sitting down on the edge of Skye's bed and pulling her best friend into a tight hug.

Skye instantly returns the hug, burying her face in the Brit's shoulder, letting the dam break and the tears fall, soaking through Jemma's t-shirt.

"I just want him to come home."

Jemma rubs what she hopes to be soothing circles on her best friend's back. "We all want him to come home again," she speaks softly in her ear. "But in the meantime, you have a beautiful little girl out there who needs her mother now more than ever."

Skye pulls back and breaths in deeply, wiping at her face with the sleeves of the sweatshirt she's wearing. It's one of Grant's old college sweatshirts that she stole from him not long after they started dating and she just kept as her own, never bothering to give it back to him.

"I know," she tells her friend. "I just...I need a little more time, okay? I promise I'll go out there and see her soon, though."

Jemma nods. "Alright. Fitz and I can keep watching after her for you, but we can't do this forever."

"I know. And you won't have to, I promise."

"Good. Do you want us to feed her dinner and put her to bed?"

"Would you mind?"

"Of course not," Jemma tells her with a soft smile. "She's my niece and you know I'd do anything for her."

"And you're an amazing aunt. Really. I can't think of anyone else who would so willingly take care of a four year old who isn't theirs like this for a week straight."

"Then I guess you're very lucky that I'm your best friend."

Skye gives her a small smile. "Yeah, I guess I am." Her smile falters. "Don't let her come in and see me tonight, okay? I know she wants to see me, but I don't want her to see me like this."

Jemma sighs. "Alright." She leans forward and kisses Skye's forehead. "It will get better," she whispers. "In time, it will get better."

Silently, Jemma stands from the bed and moves back toward the door, giving Skye one final smile before stepping out and closing the door behind her.

* * *

Shuffling out of her bedroom the next morning, Skye takes a deep breath as she makes her way further into the open area of the house, running a hand through her hair to get out any tangles.

As she walks through the hall, she lingers for a moment when her eyes catch on the family photos framed on the wall in front of her.

There are some of the three of them all together, some of just her and Grant, a few of either of them with Jessica, and some of just Jessica by herself. A lot of them are candid shots, of the three of them just in their element as a family, while some of them are posed photos, like their family portraits.

Each picture brings back another painful memory to the forefront of her mind, knowing deep down that she may never get to make any more memories with the love of her life. All she wants is for him to come back home so they can be a family again. She doesn't care about any other presents, she just wants her husband back.

"Mommy!"

A small smile pulls at Skye's lips when she looks over to see her daughter jumping up from her spot on the living room floor and running over to her, still dressed in her pajamas.

Skye bends down to return her daughter's hug when the little girl wraps her tiny arms tightly around her legs, dropping a kiss to the top of her head.

"Hi, angel. Good morning."

"Are you done being sad, mommy?" Jessica asks, leaning back to look up at her mom. "Auntie Jemma said you were sad cause daddy is away fighting bad guys."

"Well your Auntie Jemma is a very smart woman. Who apparently thinks letting you watch TV in the living room while you eat cereal is a good idea," she comments when she sees the small bowl of cereal sitting on the coffee table.

"I'm sorry," Jemma speaks up as she enters the room. "I just figured it'd be a good way to keep her occupied."

Skye smiles appreciatively at her friend. "Thanks, Jem."

"Anytime. Though, I'll try to remember not to let her watch TV while she eats."

"She can sometimes," Skye tells her. "But I usually have her at the table with my tablet."

Jemma nods. "Right. Duly noted." She takes a deep breath. "Well, I'm assuming that you can handle things from here?" She raises an eyebrow at her friend and then gives a small nod when Skye gives her a nod of her own. "Excellent. I'll be off, then."

"Bye, Auntie Jemma," Jessica says, running over to hug her aunt.

"Goodbye, sweetheart," Jemma replies, leaning down to hug her niece. "Thank you for letting me take care of you all week."

"You're welcome."

Jemma smiles once more at the girl before standing up, giving Skye a small smile and nod, and then making her way to the front door and out to her car.

"Alright, my little angel," Skye speaks up, breaking through the silence that surrounded them when Jemma left, "are you all done eating?"

"Um, yeah."

"Good. Go take your dishes to the sink, then, please. And don't spill."

"Okay, mommy."

Skye watches for a moment as he daughter grabs the cereal bowl and then carefully walks with it into the kitchen. She honestly can't believe how big her daughter is getting already, and she hates the thought of her husband never getting to see her grow up.

Stepping further into the living room, Skye grabs the remote control for the TV and hits the power button, setting it back down in its rightful spot on the TV stand.

Lingering in the room, she slowly walks over to the mantel above their fireplace, her eyes roaming over the photos sitting there.

There's one from her and Grant's wedding day, wide happy smiles on both of their faces as they dance their first dance as husband and wife.

There's another from their first anniversary, a nice evening out just the two of them at a fancy restaurant, taken by the waitress who served them their food that night.

And then there's one from the day Jessica was born, all three of them squished onto the hospital bed, exhaustion on hers and Grant's faces after a very long labor. She'd yelled at him angrily for getting her pregnant but apologized many times over afterwards once they had their beautiful daughter in their arms.

"Mommy? Why are you crying?"

Quickly wiping away the tears she hadn't realized fell from her eyes, Skye breathes in deeply and turns to face her daughter.

"I'm fine, baby. I'm just still a little sad about daddy."

"He's only away for a little bit, though," Jessica says. "Daddy said he wouldn't be gone for forever and ever. He said he'd only be gone a little bit and then be back with me and you."

Skye chokes back a sob and moves to the couch, sitting down on it.

"Come here, baby girl." She holds her arms out to her daughter.

Jessica immediately moves toward her mom, climbing up into her lap. She shifts a little to get comfortable and then looks up at her mom with a small smile.

"Hi, mommy."

"Hi, angel. I want to talk to you about something."

"Okay."

Skye takes a deep breath, steadying herself for this conversation that she's absolutely dreading. "So, you know how daddy's away fighting bad guys?" Jessica nods. "Well, sometimes, people go missing while they're fighting and they can't be found. Daddy's one of those people who went missing. His friends can't find him anywhere." She brushes some of Jessica's hair back out of her face. "Baby girl, daddy might not be coming back home."

Jessica frowns. "Yes he is."

"He might, baby girl, but he also might not come back to us, and so we'll have to learn how to live without daddy being here."

"No!" Jessica shouts. "Daddy's coming home! He promised!" She pushes her mom's arms away from her and climbs off Skye's lap. She runs out of the room, down the hallway, and into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Skye sighs as she looks up to the picture of her and Grant on the mantel, muttering quietly to herself, "Damn it, Grant."

.

.

.

Knocking softly on her daughter's bedroom door, Skye pushes open the door and peers inside to see Jessica sitting up in the middle of her bed, her kneels pulled up as she stares down at a picture of her and her dad together.

Her heart breaks at the sight.

"Hey, angel," she speaks up quietly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. "Are you still mad at me?"

"No," Jessica replies quietly. "I miss daddy. I want him back."

Skye sighs and moves to sit on the bed, pulling her daughter into her lap, the little girl instantly curling up against her. "I miss him too, baby girl."

"Were you crying cause daddy might not come home again?" Jessica asks her after a quiet moment.

Skye nods her head. "Yeah, I was. I love your daddy so very much that it made me really sad that I might not ever get to see him again. And that he won't get to see you again either and watch you grow up."

"I'm sad too."

"I'm sure you are. But you know what I just realized?"

"What?"

"Daddy wouldn't want us to be so sad all the time."

"Really?"

Skye nods. "Really. It's Christmastime so he'd want us to be happy and listen to Christmas music and make cookies and have the best Christmas that we can have."

"Can we decorate the tree?" Jessica asks after a quiet moment. "It still looks all boring cause we didn't put stuff on it after we got it."

Skye smiles and nods her head. "Yeah, baby, we can go and decorate the tree. And you know what else?"

"What?"

"I think we're going to spend all day in our jammies."

Jessica beams. "Really?"

Skye laughs quietly. "Really. I think it would be perfectly acceptable to spend all day in our jammies today while we decorate the Christmas tree. And then maybe we can make some cookies for Uncle Fitz and Auntie Jemma to say thank you for taking such good care of you."

"With lots and lots of sprinkles?" Jessica asks.

Skye smiles. "I think we can make that happen. And then maybe tomorrow…we can go see Santa."

Jessica's eyes light up and she bounces in her spot. "Santa!"

Skye laughs quietly and presses a kiss to her daughter's head, pulling her closer. This is what Grant would want, he'd want them to be happy and continue on with their holiday. So that's what they're going to do. To the best of their ability.

* * *

Sitting on the couch in the living room of her house, the only light illuminating her coming from the Christmas tree in the corner of the room, Skye stares ahead into the darkness of the unlit fireplace, a cup of hot chocolate with crushed peppermint cradled in her hands.

It's late at night on Christmas Eve and all she can think about is how there's one person missing from the holiday this year, somebody that should be there but isn't.

It's been two weeks since her world was completely turned upside down and shattered, and a week since she made the decision to pull herself back together for the sake of her daughter. She can't let her daughter suffer just because she's hurting from not having her husband there. She has to be strong for her daughter.

But sitting there in the dark, alone, with only her thoughts, it's hard not to imagine how difficult life is going to be without him there with her. Nothing is going to be the same. And she hates it.

A quiet shuffling from behind her pulls her out of her own head and the thoughts she was drowning in. She lets out a sigh without turning around, clutching her cocoa a little closer. "Go to bed."

"Only if you come with me."

Letting out a sharp gasp, Skye whips her head around to look behind her, a choked sob escaping past her lips, one hand coming up to cover her mouth as tears immediately build up in her eyes.

Quickly standing from the couch, her hot chocolate landing on the carpet, she moves around the piece of furniture, not caring about the mess she's going to have to clean up later in the day, and slowly walks toward the man standing just a few feet in front of her.

His hair is a bit longer than she's used to, a thick beard growing on his chin, and he's still wearing his military fatigues, a matching duffel tossed over one shoulder. He has a small smile playing at his lips, his dark eyes glossed over with the beginning of tears.

"Grant?" Skye manages to get out.

He nods his head. "Yeah, honey, it's me. I'm home."

Letting the dam break, Skye rushes toward her husband, jumping up into his waiting arms, her own arms wrapping tightly around his neck, burying her face in the crook as she cries.

Grant drops his bag to the ground when Skye runs at him, catching her easily and holding her around the waist, burying his own face in her hair, breathing in deeply.

"I missed you so much," he whispers in her ear, tightening his hold just a little, wanting to have her as close as he possibly can.

"I thought I lost you," she tells him through her tears.

"You're never going to lose me."

"They told me you went missing."

"I did. But some really nice people found me and helped me get to the nearest military base. They wanted me to stay there longer but I just wanted to get home to you and Jess. I'm sorry I didn't clean myself up more. I know you're not a huge fan of the full beard on me."

Skye pulls back and shakes her head, running her hands over his beard. "I don't care, babe, I don't care. You're home. That's all that matters. You could have two heads and I wouldn't care. You're back home, where you belong, and that's all that I care about. I'm so glad to have you home."

Grant smiles and cups her cheek in his hand. "This is all I thought about while I was missing," he says. "You and Jess are what kept me alive and fighting to get back to you."

"How come nobody told me you were found?" she asks, her hands still on his face, not quite believing that he's actually back in front of her.

"I wanted to surprise you," he admits, running his hand through her hair. "I know I probably should have called first to let you know I was coming back, I just…I wanted to see the look on your face when you saw me for the first time. And I have to admit that it was so worth it. I've missed everything about you, Skye. Every single thing." He takes a deep breath. "I've missed your smile, your laugh, the way you hug me and kiss me, how amazing of a mother you are to our little girl, how you—" He reacts instantly when he feels Skye's lips against his, kissing her back and holding her closer.

Skye's hands run up behind his head, tangling themselves in his hair. "You need a haircut," she says against his lips, making him laugh quietly.

"Duly noted," he tells her. "But first, I just want to be with you and Jess. Where is the little angel?"

"She should be sleeping. Key words there: should be."

Grant laughs quietly again.

Skye smiles and runs her hands affectionately through his hair. "I've missed your laugh. I've missed everything about you. For a while there I didn't think you were coming back and I—"

"Daddy! You're home!"

Pulling apart just enough, Grant and Skye turn their heads to see Jessica running into the room, immediately attaching herself to Grant's legs as tightly as she can.

"I missed you so much, daddy."

Grant leans down and pries Jessica off his legs and lifts her into his arms, hugging her tightly and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "I missed you too, angel. So much."

Jessica leans back from hugging her dad and smiles wide. "I got my wish, daddy."

"What wish, angel?"

"For you to come back home. Mommy taked me to go see Santa and I asked him for my daddy for Christmas, and he brought you home."

"Jess, did you really ask Santa to bring daddy home for Christmas?" Skye asks her daughter.

Jessica nods proudly. "Uh-huh. I asked him to bring daddy home so you would stop being so sad all the time." She looks over at her dad. "Mommy cried for a long time cause you were away fighting the bad guys and not here with me and her."

Grant looks at Skye with a concerned frown.

"It was after they told me you went missing," she tells him. "I kept telling myself that if you were missing you were essentially dead and it really hurt knowing that Jess would never get to know you or have you around as she grew up."

"Well I'm here now," he tells her, one hand cupping her cheek. He leans forward and rests his forehead against hers, both their eyes closing at the contact. "And I'm not going anywhere for a long, long time."

* * *

 **So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Until next time,  
Jellybean96 out!**


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